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WORCESTER 

CITY OF PROSPERITY 

Sixteenth Annual Convention 

National Metal Trades Association 

The Bancroft 

Worcester, Massachusetts 

April 20-22, 1914 






By Donald Tulloch 

Worcester, Massachusetts 

1914 



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Copyright. 1914 

By Donald Tulloch 
Worcester, Mass. 



OCT 26 1914 



Publishers 

The Commonwealth Press 
Worcester, Mass. 

©CI.A388116 



g p 

A Dedication and Confession 

To the 

Employers and Employees of Worcester — 

The Mechanics of this Glorious City, 

Who made it what it is, 

I dedicate this Book. 



Worcester is the City of my Adoption, 

Coming here an Entire Stranger, 

Like Thousands of other Strangers, 

From "Auld Scotia's Shores." — 

Land of the Free and the Brave, 

To the Land of Democracy and Opportunity. 

A Quarter of a Century's residence 

Within its inviting Borders, 

Has taught me that, 

For the Worker, 

For the Employer, 

For every one from every Clime, 

There is not a more attractive place than 

Worcester, "Heart of the Commonwealth." 



DONALD TULLOCH. 



April the Twentieth, 

Nineteen Hundred and Fourteen. 



=B 



Past Presidents 
Worcester Branch 



N.M.TA. 





AENewton "10—11 



WeAre 
Seven 




J.WHarnnqtonlZ-15 



=E 



We Acknowledge 
Thanks 

TO many friends for courtesies extended 
in the assembling of the facts for this 
Volume, and in the fitting-up of the 
various parts, making it the machine des- 
cribing machinery; To the Publisher — the 
Commonwealth Press, we make our bow; 
for assistance from Our Friend Rev. Epler's 
"Master Minds"; To William A. and Mar- 
ion W. Emerson for cuts from "Old Land- 
marks" ; "The Worcester of 1898", by F. P. 
Rice, also aided us very considerably in 
getting at facts; To my wife, Isabella M. 
Tulloch, to John R. Back and others for 
research work and preparation of articles, 
it is only fair to show public appreciation. 

D. T. 



■-Q 




John W. Higgins 

President, Worcester Branch 
National Metal Trades Association 



B B 

^CTie Philosophy of Learning a ^rade 

TO make a good living; to have a happy 
family; to make preparation for hard 
times; to wear overalls in the shop 
with the same dignity as good clothes are 
worn on Sunday; to be confident you are 
laying a sure foundation for any future 
success; to feel that you are master of your 
work, and that you share the creative 
spirit. This is the philosophy of learning 
a trade. — Milton P. Higgins. 



B- 




The Bancroft — Convention Building 

Worcester, Massachusetts Charles S. Averill, Manager 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



To Metal Trades Men — Greeting 




HE COMING to Worcester for its Annual Convention 
of the National Metal Trades Association is an event 
fraught with unusual importance to Massachusetts and 
the industrial states of New England. 

Never before has this influential aggregation of em- 
ployers of labor in the United States and Canada held its 
sessions in a city so small in population as Worcester. 

Never before has a similar body of manufacturers, nearly 800 firms 
employing over 300,000 people, with a pay-roll of $185,000,000 annually, 
ever met in this city. 

Never before in the history of Worcester has there gathered together 
manufacturers representing any one industry who have devoted almost a 
score of years to studying and solving the various intricate problems which 
engage the attention of capital and labor. 

No combination of employers in the world have lavished so generously 
of their time and thought and money in the education of the workmen in 
their craft, in voluntarily adopting measures to safeguard their interests 
while at work, to furnish them with equipment and shops of the most 
modern type and hygienic environment, to improve their condition of 
toil, to reward their efforts with the highest compensation possible, and 
make provision for their support and that of their families against sickness 
and death. 

Worcester is honored with the visit of the Metal Trades craftsmen. 
The Association has done itself justice in coming to a section of the United 
States which stands out pre-eminently as a machine tool manufacturing 
centre. 

Worcester County Mechanics greet the skilled Machinists of North 
America. The Heart of the Commonwealth beats warm and strong for 
you all. The Gray Eagle of Asnebumskit looks down upon you benignly 
and bids you welcome. 

Worcester has contributed in full measure of eminent men and women 
who have enriched the world with glorious achievements in all lines of 
human endeavor. Statesmen, scholars, scientists, inventors, journalists, 
humanitarians, manufacturers, philanthropists, merchants, farmers, me- 
chanics, — last but by no means least, have all added their quota to the 
greatness of Worcester. 

This volume will tell in somewhat abbreviated form how the Heart 
of the Commonwealth came to be a Mighty Big Workshop: how its throb- 
bing, pulsating hives of varied industry are turning out and transporting to 
all quarters of the globe those sterling products which help to rejuvenate 
the world and make it Busier, Brighter, Better. 




Tower of Old Union Depot, and New Union Station, 
Worcester, Mass. 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



It is also intended to convey some impression of the noble citizens — 
men and women — who in days gone by as well as the present have mate- 
rially aided in establishing Worcester as the third city of importance in the 
New England States. 

The book is in no sense a guide to Worcester, simply a small com- 
pendium of men and women, machines and machine tools, inventors and 
mechanics, places and people of human interest, incidents of note — a pot- 
pourri — all thrown in to the metal trades melting pot, printed and bound 
into a thing we call a book. 

Explanation must be offered the members of the Worcester Branch 
for the entire inadequacy of the reference made to their workshops and 
factories. It was not the intention of the writer to exploit the works of the 
Branch members or the character of their product, and reference has only 
been made briefly in the case of a few where it appeared that an invention 
or something entirely out of the common required special reference. 

It was felt that there was no necessity for advertising our firms, as 
they are sufficiently known in the metal trades throughout the world. The 
halftone cuts indicating the size of the plants will convey to the visitors 
some impressions of the composition of workshops in this section, when 
lack of time will prevent them from visiting these plants for themselves. 

From the wide scope of the articles in the Book, and the great variety 
of industries touched upon, it will be readily seen that while this volume 
is ostensibly published for the special benefit of metal trades people, it is 
not circumscribed to the exclusive channels of metal trades lines, but that 
it gives fairly adequate attention to the leading industries of the city. 

We trust it may be regarded in a modest way as one of the means which 
have been taken recently to eulogize Worcester in all its attractiveness, 
and place it in the estimate of the world where it rightly belongs — as one 
of the most kingly cities to be born in, to be educated in, to toil in, to die in 
and to be buried in (for even Worcester's Cemeteries are very attractive 
looking), and to go to heaven from. 

If this book, then, will interest readers and furnish a clearer perspec- 
tive of "Who's Who and What's What in Worcester," it will have supplied 
the ambition of the writer and sufficiently rewarded him for the somewhat 
arduous task of compilation and editing. 

DONALD TULLOCH. 
April 20, 1914. 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



"Cead Mille Fealthe"— 1 00,000 Welcomes 

THIS represents the fraternal greetings of the National Metal Trades 
Association members in the Worcester Branch to their fellow mem- 
bers throughout the United States and Canada on the occasion of 
the Sixteenth Annual Convention of that Association in The Bancroft, 
Worcester, April 20-22, 1914. 

It is fitting that Worcester — "The Heart of the Commonwealth," 
of the Old Bay State, should have the honor and privilege of the Annual 
Convention. Here in this city and vicinity were born many of the inventors 
of machines, machine tools and labor-saving devices which have been a 
dynamic force in revolutionizing industries the world over. Here, also, is 
the cradle of invention, of ingenuity, in which has been nurtured those 
allied industries of the metal trades which have brought honor and dis- 
tinction to Worcester as one of the pre-eminently great mechanical centres 
of the universe. 

More machine tool builders, machinists and metal trades people are 
to be found in Worcester and suburbs than in any other county on the 
American continent. 

Worcester is a name to conjure with when speaking of machinery. 
Fitchburg, Nashua, Barre and Hudson boast of splendid plants for the 
manufacture of machines, steam engines, saws and steam pumps; South- 
bridge is famous for its optical goods, cutlery and shuttles; Athol for small 
machine gauges, tools, vises, cutters and twist drills; Warren for steam 
pumps; Orange for sewing and the Dexter valve reseating machines; 
Winchendon for woodworking machinery; Gardner for chair making. 

Worcester has manufactured sufficient wire to girdle the globe a 
thousand times. Worcester has manufactured as many corsets as would 
girdle the world's women. Worcester could manufacture annually as many 
envelopes as would carry the world's correspondence. 

With this brief preface, delegates may drink in the inventive genius 
characteristic of Worcester. We welcome them to the Heart of the Com- 
monwealth. 

They have the freedom of the city. 

The metal trades people of Worcester feel a unique honor conferred 
upon them by virtue of their presence. We welcome them, and trust their 
stay will be one long round of pleasure and profit, and when they leave us, 
that they will carry away with them pleasant recollections of their visit to 
the Heart of the Commonwealth. We will share with them much of the 
profit which will come from their daily sessions. In all their deliberations 
we trust they will have uppermost in their minds the thought — the high 
ideal — that the success of the industries they represent must be reflected in 
their kindly, considerate attitude towards their employees, without whom 
it would have been impossible for them to succeed. We hope that the strong 

13 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



feature of their meeting in Worcester will be the fostering of that spirit of 
mutual trustfulness and fair dealing between employer and employee 
which alone can make for industrial triumph and general happiness. 

For more than a decade there has been industrial peace in this city in 
metal trades lines. For this, credit is due both the employer and employee. 
The former realized that in order to secure the most skilled workmen 
required to maintain the quality of the world-known products made in 
Worcester, it was imperative that the best wage rate possible should be 
paid and general working conditions good. The workmen knew that in 
order to gain the best positions in the Worcester shops it was necessary 
to be classed among the skilled mechanics. With these two leading features 
settled in the labor problem, the rest of the essentials was a matter easy of 
accomplishment. The result has been that workmen have performed 
their task honorably and well, and employers have done their part in 
bringing about the principle of the square deal. 

No better workmen in the metal trades lines can be found anywhere 
the world over than in the city of Worcester. The industrial supremacy 
of Worcester is due to the combined efforts of the employers and employees. 

Worcester made the cables which gave the delegates the first intima- 
tion that the National Metal Trades Association Convention had chosen 
the Heart of the Commonwealth as its meeting place in 1914. 

Fitchburg's big railroad machines have made possible the strength and 
speed of our giant locomotives. 

Worcester builds the railroad cars those engines pulled, bringing from 
afar the friends who have come to be with us on this most auspicious occa- 
sion, and a Worcester man invented the upper berth which makes railroad 
travel comparatively comfortable. 

Worcester manufactures the envelopes with which the National 
Office informed the delegates of the Convention program. 

Worcester capital — much of it among the members of the National 
Metal Trades Association, built the Bancroft where the Convention is so 
pleasantly situated. 

Worcester County farmers produce the delicatessen with which the 
delegates have been regaling themselves for several days and which have 
made them all look so happy. 

But not alone in Mechanics — in arts and crafts, is Worcester and its 
suburbs pre-eminent. This city and vicinity have given to the world many 
men and women of national and international reputation. It was the 
home of Hoar and Burritt the statesmen, Bancroft the historian; President 
John Adams taught school in Worcester; Edward Everett Hale ministered 
here; Carroll D. Wright, world-known statistician, was the first president 
of Clark College; Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine, was born 
here, as were also Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross; Eli Whitney, who 
discovered the cotton gin; Gen. Artemus Ward, first commander-in-chief 
of the American Revolution; Dr. William Morton, who conquered pain by 
discovering the first successful anaesthetic; Draper Ruggles, Joel Ncurse 
and John C. Mason, inventors of agricultural machinery, who perfected 



14 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



the modern plow; J. C. Stoddard, who invented the first steam calliope; 
Asa Hapgood, who invented the upper berth in the modern railroad sleep- 
ing car. In H. H. Bigelow's rink, on Foster Street, on February 22, 1887, 
was run the first electric car in the United States; the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was first read in Massachusetts by Isaiah Thomas from the west 
porch of the old Old South Church on the Worcester Common, July 14, 
1776; Luther Burbank, the plant creator, was born in Lancaster; while 
Worcester was also the home of Dorothea Lynde Dix, "an unveiled Sister 
of Mercy' — redemptress of the world's insane; G. Stanley Hall, world- 
known educator; John Bartholomew Gough, the great apostle of temper- 
ance, buried here. Worcester is the birthplace of Andrew Green, who has 
been styled "the Father of Greater New York;" the boyhood days of 
Ex-President W. H. Taft were passed in Millbury; the first auto made in 
the United States was manufactured by Elwood Haynes, a Worcester 
Tech graduate. It was Charles Burleigh, of Fitchburg, who invented the 
rock-drill and compressor in 1867, which made it possible to bore the 
Hoosac Tunnel when all other efforts had failed. Burleigh was at that 
time employed in the Putnam Machine Co. 

Gen. Rufus Putnam, Rutland, eminent engineer of Washington's 
Staff, designed the fortifications for Dorchester Heights, that made the 
British evacuate Boston. Putnam was pioneer in organizing the settle- 
ment of Ohio from Massachusetts. 

Few readers there are who cannot hark back to childhood days and 
remember the story of "Mary and Her Little Lamb." It was at Sterling, 
a dozen miles from Worcester, where was born Mary Sawyer, whose little 
lamb followed her to school one day to the astonishment of the teacher 
and the great delight of Mary's schoolmates. 

Through the instrumentality of Dr. Melvin G. Overlock of Worcester, 
for the first time in the history of the world, the humanitarian arrangement 
has been made by Worcester employers of labor among metal trades and 
other lines, for the care of their employees who are afflicted with tubercu- 
losis, at a State Sanitarium for the probationary period of 1 3 weeks. 

One of the strikingly important features of the lives of great leaders 
of men and women which Worcester has produced, as it is chiefly true of 
other sections of the world, is, generally speaking, the humble home which 
gave them birth. It is only one more proof of the oft-repeated statement 
that true greatness invariably comes from the home of the modest and 
humble — necessity makes for genius and invention, toil and industry, 
honor and fame. In no greater degree are those features exemplified than 
in the life work of the famous people mentioned who have made Worcester 
renowned. 

Worcester is a unique city. There isn't anything just like it in the 
Western Hemisphere. First and foremost it is supremely a manufacturing 
and railroad centre, and it is also a city of homes. It is a city of mechanics 
whose languages represent the nationalities of the universe, yet it is re- 
nowned as a centre of music, art, culture, refinement. 



IS 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



It is a progressive city, entering actively into all those features of the 
modern world which makes for civic betterment, civic pride, and yet it is 
a conservative city, building up its interests in a manner which makes for 
soundness, for time, and keeping in view the future of a great metropolitan 
centre. It is a municipality about which there has never been anything 
said to smirch its fair name, a city of churches, educational institutions, 
a thrifty prosperous populace. 

Few cities can show such tremendous growth in population. It has 
placed 3,000 people to its population every year on an average for 30 years. 
In the last 1 5 years it has added 50,000 people within its gates. An hour's 
ride by train, and Worcester can come in touch with 3,000,000 people, 
and that fact is only true of one other city in the United States — New 
York. 

It is eleventh in value of machine shop and foundry products in the 
United States, and first in wire making industries. Its machine shops and 
foundries, nearly 100, give employment to 5,500 people. Worcester me- 
chanics own their own homes. 

It is estimated that there are 1 ,500 industrial plants employing 35,000 
mechanics in Worcester, earning about $30,000,000 a year in the manu- 
facture of products valued at $80,000,000. There are savings in the 
local banks equal to $375 for every man, woman and child in the city. 



D. T. 



"Cead Mille Fealthe" Again! 

And this time it is to the Members of the National 
Machine Tool Builders Association 

Since the above welcome was written to the Metal Trades Men, 
one or two enthusiastic Boosters for Worcester made a final endeavor to 
secure the Convention of the National Machine Tool Builders Associa- 
tion for this City. 

It was a laudable object and Worcester was the logical city. All 
that was needed was a leader, and he was found. The result is that 
although the Convention had been scheduled for Hotel Astor, New York, 
April 23-24, it gave Worcester people much joy when it was finally de- 
cided at the last moment to hold it on the same dates in The Bancroft, 
Worcester. 

Therefore, we welcome our kindred brethren of the Machine Tool 
Builders Association, and hope they will enjoy their visit to the Heart of 
the Commonwealth. 

D. T. 

16 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Fair Worcester 

By Rev. C. F. Hill Crathern. 
Sung to the tune of "Fair Harvard" 

Fair Worcester, thy name and thy glory we sing, 

As we crown thee, the Queen of the years, 
Our love and allegiance we gratefully bring 

For with thee are our hopes and our fears. 
O! "Heart of the Commonwealth" tender and strong, 

As it throbs with the passion of life, 
For thy peace and prosperity ever we long, 

And the end of all discord and strife. 

We remember with pride how our fathers of old, 

Saw the star of hope shining on high, 
How they followed the gleam of its silver and gold, 

As it shone and illumined the sky; 
With the plow and the ax, with a courage divine, 

They wrested their bread from the sod, 
They laid their foundations with plummet and line, 

As they builded the City of God. 

Through the forests primeval they walked in the light 

Of a faith that was noble and grand, 
'Neath the roof of the stars by their watchfires at night, 

They dreamed of the long Promised Land. 
From the scenes of their youth and their childhood so dear. 

In the pioneer days of the state, 
They turned to the hills with a song and a cheer, 

And their hearts all aflame and elate. 

In the church and the school, in the home of our birth, 

We will honor their zeal and their love, 
We will treasure their names at the altar and hearth, 

While they rest from their labors above. 
O! valleys and hills where their footsteps once trod, 

Shout aloud your glad triumphs, nor cease, 
Where the wilderness stood blooms the Garden of God, 

With the angels of love and of peace. 

May the future be bright as the glorious past, 

And our sons be as great as our sires, 
May Righteousness, Justice and Truth ever last, 

To inspire and control our desires, 
May the Stars and the Stripes ever wave o'er our land, 

And our watchword "Prosperity" be. 
May "Obedience to Law" with true liberty stand, 

For "Fair Worcester," the home of the free. 



17 




Sagamore John 
Worcester's First Native 




Worcester's First City Hall 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester — City of Prosperity 

Worcester — A City of Homes. 

Worcester — A City of Schools. 

Worcester — A City of Churches. 

Worcester — A City of Manufactures. 

Worcester — A City of Mechanics. 

Worcester — A City of Railroads and Railways. 

Worcester — A City of Stores. 

Worcester — A City of Industrial Peace. 

Worcester — A City of Metal Trades. 

Worcester — A City of Health. 

Worcester — A City of Wealth. 

Worcester — • A City of Parks. 

Worcester — A City of Brave Men and Noble Women. 

Worcester — A City of Newspapers. 

Worcester — A City of Higher Educational Institutions. 

Worcester — A City of Art. 

Worcester — A City of Music. 

Worcester — A City of Culture. 

Worcester — A City of Renown. 

WORCESTER— ONE GRAND CITY 



19 




U'-'J l£iJi" > J O J 



-X 



Tablet on Davis Tower, Lake Park 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester First Settled 

WORCESTER was first settled under the Indian name of Quin- 
sigamond in 1673, when Ephraim Curtis of Sudbury bought land 
and built a log house on Lincoln Street, between Adams Square 
and the City Farm. The rude dwellings of a few other newcomers were 
already built when King Philip's War broke out and the settlement was 
abandoned. When the second settlement was attempted its name was 
changed to Worcester, meaning "war-castle." The renewed hostility of 
the Indians caused a second desertion of the place in 1701 by all except 
the family of Digory Sargent, who was himself killed while defending his 
garrison house, and his wife and five children taken prisoners. The wife 
and mother, fainting with grief and fear impeded the flight of the savages 
and while ascending the hills of Tatnuck, a chief stepped out of the file 
and with one blow of the tomahawk relieved the obstruction to their 
march. 

The third and permanent settlement dates from 1713, when Jonas Rice 
came from Marlboro and located on Sagatabscot, now Union Hill, his 
farm including some of the lands cultivated by Digory Sargent. The 
spot is marked by the Rice Boulder on Heywood Street. 

Another episode of those times was the kidnapping of Samuel Leon- 
ard, or Lenorson, by a marauding band of Indians. The account is given 
in full on the tablet placed on Davis Tower, Lake Park, by the Worcester 
Society of Antiquity. Before the coming of the white settlers Pakachoag 
Hill was the headquarters of a tribe of Nipmuck Indians under Saga- 
more John. Another tribe occupied the Tatnuck Hills, and still another 
Wigwam Hill, near the Lake. The Nipmucks, under the influence of 
John Eliot and Daniel Gookin, made an advance in civilization and some 
had professed Christianity. Sagamore John, who surrendered in Boston, 
affirmed that he was "forced for fear of his own life to join King Philip 
against the English." 

The deed of purchase from the Indians was a curious paper and it 
bears the date of July 13, 1674, and is as follows: 

"Bee it known to all men by this present writing that wee, John, 
alias Hoorrawannonit, or Quigaowassett, Sagamore of Packachoag, and 
Solomon, alias Woonaskochu, Sagamore of Tatassit, together with the 
consent of our kindred and people, and for, and in consideration of twelve 
pounds of lawful money or the full value thereof in other specie to our 
content, within three months after the date hereof, well and truly be paid 
and satisfied and pt. whereof viz; two coats and four yards of trading 
cloth, valued at twenty six shillings, we do acknowledge to have received 
in hand, as earnest, of Daniel Gookin sent of Camb, Esq. and of Daniel 
Hinchman of Boston, Brewer, in behalf of themself and Capt. Thomas 
Prentice and Lt. Richard Beeres and the rest of the General Court's Com- 

21 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



mittee appointed for the management of a new plantation granted by said 
court, conteyning eight miles square or the contents thereof, beeing to 
the westward of Marlborrow near Quinsigaamud ponds and on each side 
of the roadway leading towards Connecticott; now know ye yt wee, ye 
sd John and Solomon, Sagamore aforesaid and upon ye terme aforesaid, 
unto ye Sd Daniel Gookin, Thomas Prentice, Daniel Henchman, Richard 
Beeres and ye rest of ye people admitted or to be admitted by ye said 
committee to bee inhabitants of ye new plantation, and to their heyrs, 
executors, administrators and assigns forever, in fee simple, all and every 
part of our civil or natural rights, in all and singular the broken up land 
and woodland, swamp, meadow, woods, trees, rivers, brooks, ponds, min- 
eralls or anything whatever lyeing and beeing within that part of land, 
conteyning eight miles square, or the contents thereof, to be layd out by 
ye sd persons or their order in time convenient. To have and to hold the 
premises and every part thereof unto them the sd Daniel Gookin, Thomas 
Prentice, Daniel Henchman and Richard Beeres and all ye rest of ye 
inhabitants admitted or to be admitted planters there and unto Ym and 
Yr heirs forever truly, and absolutely without any lett, molestation or 
disturbance, of us or by from or under us, forevermore as our heyrs or 
assignes and we do promise upon the finishing of the payments, to make 
full any of our kindred or people or any claims and ample deeds of writing 
for the same according to law. In witness to the truth hereof, wee ye sd 
John and Solomon alias Hoorrawannonit, and Woonaskochu, have here- 
unto set our hands and seals this thirteenth day of July, 1 674. 
Solomon, alias Woonaskochu 

(Seal and mark) 
John, Alias Hoorrawannonit 

(Seal and Mark) 
Signal, sealed and delivered in the presence of us 

Onnomog (his mark) Sagamore of Ocoonomesset 

Namphow (his mark) Sagamore of Wanessit 

Joseph Thatcher of Chabanakoichee (his mark) 

Nosoowowit (his mark) 

Noah Wiswell, present 

D. Gookin 
Final payment received August 20th, 1676. 

In September, 1674, the distinguished Indian philanthropist, John 
Eliot, of Roxbury, accompanied by his historian, Daniel Gookin, came to 
Quinsigamond Plantation to visit the tribe of Indians that dwelt about 
here. They met Sagamore John of the Nipmuck tribe, who lived near 
Pakachoag Hill, now known as Mt. St. James, the site of the College of 
the Holy Cross, and Sagamore Solomon of Tatassit Hill, now the suburb 
known as Tatnuck. The meeting was held at Pakachoag and at its ter- 
mination Captain Gookin was more than fully satisfied of the desirability 
of the plan chosen for the new settlement. The kind and gentle manner 
of Eliot made a strong impression on the Indians to promise to extend a 
hearty welcome to the newcomers. 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The plans were then fully completed and during the year 1674 quite 
a number of settlers began to arrive and build upon, and cultivate the land 
assigned to them in different sections of the place. This was followed up 
with greater vigor in 1675, and everything was progressing finely, the 
inhabitants "building after ye manner of a towne," when the terrible and 
destructive war of King Philip began, and after Mendon and Brookfield 
had been destroyed, the Indians descended suddenly upon the new settle- 
ment of Quinsigamond or Worcester, surrounded it, and created such 
havoc that it was soon deserted. Every building that had been erected 
by the settlers was burned by the Indians, December 2, 1675. For a 
number of years after this no settler dared to return here, but in 1684 their 
fear so abated that they began to come back and another settlement was 
started, only to be again devastated a few years later. At the second 
attempt to revive the settlement in 1684, the rights of all those who had 
previously proved their title to the soil were confirmed to them by the 
General Court. Inducements were offered for the settlers to come back, 
and encouragement was offered to others to come here and take up land. 
A vacancy had been caused upon the committee having charge of the plan- 
tation, by the death of Lieut. Richard Beeres, who was killed by the In- 
dians, and Captain John Irving was appointed in his place. September 
10, 1684, a petition was presented to the General Court to have the plan- 
tation named Worcester, which was granted October 15, 1684. The fol- 
lowing is a copy from the original records of the Massachusetts Colony 
of the General Court's grant for the change of name: 

"Upon the motion and desire of Major General Gookin, Captain 
Prentice and Captain Dan Henchman, the Court grants their request, 
i.e., that their plantation at Quinsagamond be calld Worcester & yt Capt 
Wing be added & appointed one of the Committee there in ye roome of 
the Deceased & that the towne Brande be this "-p." 

A tract of one hundred acres was laid out for Captain Gookin on the 
east side of Pakachoag Hill, overlooking what is now included in Quin- 
sigamond Village, and one of eighty acres on Racoon Plain, near that part 
known as New Worcester. Another of eighty acres was laid out for Captain 
John Wing on the west side of Mill Brook, north of the present Lincoln 
Square, and several settled in the vicinity of Adams Square as it is now 
named. The land was taken up little by little but no accurate record of 
these early settlers was preserved, for the Indians again caused com- 
plete desertion of the place, during Queen Anne's war which began soon 
after 1702. But nothing daunted, in 1713, the proprietors, undiscouraged 
by the two former failures, came back, and began once more to build. 
In October of that year Col. Adam Winthrop, Gershom Rice and Jonas 
Rice addressed the General Court in behalf of themselves and others, 
representing their desire "to endeavor and enter upon a new settlement 
of the place from which they had twice been driven by war" and "prayed 
the countenance and encouragement of the Court in their undertaking; 
for such directions and regulations as should be thought fit to make them 
defensible in case of a new rupture of the Indians; and for a proper com- 

23 




The Spirit of '76 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



mittee to direct in ordering prudentials of the plantation till they come 
to a full settlement." 

This petition was duly granted, and Hon. William Taylor, Col. Adam 
Winthrop, William Dudley, Lieut. Col. John Valentine and Captain Thomas 
Howe were appointed as the new committee. 

On the 14th of June, 1714, a detailed report was presented by this 
committee of its proceedings in adjusting the claims of the former settlers 
and for promoting the future prosperity of the plantation. It is dated 
that it had allowed 31 rights of ancient inhabitants, and admitted 28 per- 
sons to take land on the condition that they pay twelve pence per acre 
for their planting or house lots only, being the amount collected of the 
original settlers, and of building and dwelling upon each lot, whether it 
was acquired by purchase or grant. It was recommended that the pro- 
vision for the support of the ministry and school be accepted, instead of 
the reservation to the commonwealth made in 1668. The committee also 
asked, as it had spent much time in receiving claims for grants of land, 
made many long journeys to affect adjustment of controversies, advanced 
considerable sums of money, and expected to have the care and trouble 
of the affairs of the town for many years, that a grant of forty acres should 
be assigned to each of them, with proportion of future divisions, as just 
compensation for their services. This report was accepted and received 
the approval of Gov. Joseph Dudley, June 14, 1714. 

Previous to this time, however, Jonas Rice who had been a planter 
here during the second settlement, returned on October 21, 1713, and it 
is from this date that the permanent settlement of the town can be dated. 
He built his home on Sagatabscot Hill, now known as Union Hill, and not 
far from where the fine buildings of the Worcester Academy are located. 
The original home was destroyed nearly 75 years ago. Jonas Rice remained 
here with his family alone in the forest, the only inhabitant of the place, 
until the early spring of 1715, when his brother, Gershom Rice, came as 
the second settler. Jonas Rice was a good and true man and commanded 
the respect and confidence of all who came after the settlement began to 
rise again from its ashes. He held many town offices; was frequently 
representative to the General Court; one of the justices of the Court of 
Common Pleas. He died September 22, 1753, at the age of 84 years. 
The third settler was Nathaniel Moore, of Sudbury, a man of great Christian 
character, and who was deacon of the first church from its foundation. 

The first male child born in Worcester was Adonijah, son of Jonas 
Rice, who was born November 7, 1714. He lived to be 88 years of age. 

Soon thereafter the shadows of oppression began to darken the 
land, and the first rumblings of the Revolution which finally up- 
heaved the Colonial Government, were felt here. When the appeal to 
arms was made, many of the inhabitants most distinguished for their talent, 
influence and honor, adhered with constancy to the cause of the King. In 
the struggle of warfare and the hostility of the party feelings they were 
drawn into semi-exile, and loaded down with reproval. Standing as they 
did, they entertained grave doubts whether that period had arrived when 



25 




«"* 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



it was possible to declare independence, and they did not care to hazard 
all they had on the very uncertain issue of a war with England. The very 
earliest expression of opinion on Revolutionary matters on record here 
was in 1765, when Capt. Ephraim Doolittle, the town's representative 
to the General Court, was instructed "To join in no measure contemplating 
the stamp act." The indignation of the people on the promulgation of 
the act imposing a duty on tea was fully aroused here and severe resolu- 
tions were drawn up, exposing the feelings of the inhabitants. As the 
non-consumption argument prevented the sale of the obnoxious article by 
the merchants, mint and sage were extensively planted in the gardens and 
were used as a beverage. Those who did continue the use of tea indulged in 
the luxury as if they were committing a crime, and with the utmost secrecy. 

From this time to 1 773 no especial doings of the inhabitants marked 
the progress of the spirit of independence. The great influence of the 
Royalists, prevented any public expression of the high-toned patriotism 
which in other places was growing day by day more intense. The struggle 
between the patriotism of the people and the loyalty of the powerful in- 
fluence and wealth arrived at a crisis in this town in 1774, and terminated 
in the absolute defeat of the adherents to the King. Most of the protest- 
ers were made to publicly recant while those who did not, were so per- 
secuted that they were glad to leave the town for more congenial quarters. 

The difficulties between the mother country and the Colonies were 
fast hastening matters to a decision. An appeal was made to arms, and 
preparation was actively but silently made, and the "Minute-Men" here 
were advised to exercise and perfect themselves in discipline. In March, 
1775, they were ordered to train half a day in each week to be ready for 
an emergency, as it seemed that their service might be required in defence 
of the country very soon. They were. Before noon on the 19th day of 
April, 1775, an express rider came dashing into Worcester, shouting as 
he passed through the streets, "To arms! to arms! The war has begun." 
His horse bloody with spurring, and dripping with sweat, fell exhausted 
near the meeting house, and another was procured, the alarmist mounted 
and the tiding was carried on through the country. The bell rang out the 
alarm, cannons were fired, and messengers hastened to every part of the 
town to collect the soldiers. 

As the news spread, men hastily left their implements of husbandry 
in the fields where they were working, to seize their muskets and in a very 
short time, "the Minute-men" were paraded on the Common, under com- 
mand of Capt. Timothy Bigelow, After prayer by the Rev. Mr. Mac- 
Carty, they took up the line of march for Lexington and Concord. They 
were soon followed by many others under command of Capt. Benjamin 
Flagg and on that day 1 10 good men and true left Worcester to enter the 
great battle for liberty. Worcester furnished a large number of men during 
the Revolutionary War, many of whom became prominent in the battles 
of those days Among these was Col. Timothy Bigelow, in whose memory 
the marble monument was erected on the Common. It is a curious co- 
incident in this connection, that upon the day the monument was being 



27 




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J 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



dedicated with a great ceremony, came the startling news of the firing upon 
Fort Sumter, the first alarm of another long and bloody struggle for the 
country's honor. 

On Saturday, July 14, 1776, the Declaration of Independence arrived 
here on its way from Philadelphia to Boston. This instrument, the eloquent 
echo of sentiments expressed in less splendid form from almost every village 
throughout the Colonies, long before they were promulgated in that docu- 
ment, the "Magna Charta of freedom" was hailed with greatest enthusi- 
asm. It was read for the first time in Massachusetts from the front of the 
Old South Church, by Isaiah Thomas, to the assembled crowd. On Sunday, 
after divine service, it was again read in church. Measures were immedi- 
ately adopted for a proper celebration of the event, and on Monday 
following, the very earliest commemoration of the occasion since hallowed 
as the national anniversary took place in the town. The Massachusetts 
Spy of July 24, 1 776, gives the following account of the day: 

"On Monday last, a number of patriotic gentlemen of this town ani- 
mated with great love for their country, and a desire to show their approba- 
tion of the measures lately taken by the General Council of America 
assembled on the "Green" near the Liberty pole, when after having dis- 
played the colors of the thirteen Confederate Colonies of America, the bells 
were set ringing, and drums abeating. After a while the Declaration of 
Independence of the United States was read to a large and respectable 
body, among whom were the Selectmen and Committees of Correspon- 
dence, assembled on the occasion, who testified their approbation by re- 
peated huzzas, firing of musketry and cannon, bonfires and other loud dem- 
onstrations of joy. 

"When the arms of that tyrant in Britain, George III of exorable mem- 
ory, which in former times decorated, but of late disgraced the Court 
House in this town, were committed to the flames and consumed to ashes, 
there was renewed joy. After this a select company of the Sons of Freedom 
repaired to the tavern lately known by the King's Arms, which odious 
signature of despotism was taken down by order of the people, which order 
was most cheerfully complied with by the Inn-Keeper, when a long list of 
toasts were then drank and an evening spent with joy on the commence- 
ment of a new era. The greatest decency and good order was observed, 
and at a suitable hour each man returned to his respective home." 

The King's Arms, at which the demonstration took place, occupied 
about the site of the former Lincoln House and now where Poli's Theatre 
is located. It was a very celebrated place in those days, and had been 
honored by the entertainment of George Washington, while on a journey 
in 1775, from Philadelphia to Cambridge. 

Gen. George Washington, first president of the United States, also 
visited Worcester, October 23, 1 789. Gen. Lafayette passed through Wor- 
cester in 1834, on his way to visit the country he had helped to liberate 
half a century before. 



29 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester — "City of Prosperity" 

Quinsigamond — Indian Name. 

Worcester means "War Castle." 

"City of Prosperity" — and that's why the National Metal Trades 
Association is holding its 16th Annual Con- 
vention in the "Heart of the Commonwealth. " 

Worcester is the second city in population in Massachusetts and the 
third in the New England states. It was incorporated a town in 1722 and 
a city in 1848. It covers an area of about 24,586 acres or 38 square miles. 
It has had a marvellous steady growth for an inland city. The population 
of Worcester 200 years ago was 200; now it is nearly 200,000. 

The population in I 722 was 200 

1790 2,095 

1800 2,411 

1810 2,577 

1820 2,962 

1830 4,172 

1840 7,497 

1850 17,049 

1860 24,960 

1870 41.105 

1880 58,291 

1890 84,655 

1900 118,421 

1910 145,986 

1914 166,025 (Water Census) 



5i 



i 




New Union Depot, opened in 191 I 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester's City Hall 



THE new city hall occupies practically the whole of the west side of 
the Worcester Common. It also occupies the site of the old Old 
South Church and the old city hall. From the west porch of the 
church was first read in public in Massachusetts, the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, written ten days before in Philadelphia. 

The new city hall was built of Milford granite by Norcross Brothers, 
of Worcester. It is 219 feet long, 85 feet wide, has 60 rooms, is in Italian 
renaissance style of architecture, with a beautiful Florentine tower, rising 
205 feet from the ground. 

The old hall which gave place to the present one, contained the largest 
audience room in Worcester until the erection of the Mechanics Hall in 
1857. In the old city hall in 1848 was born the Free Soil party. Here, in 
1854, Eli Thayer, of Worcester, announced his "Plan of Freedom." In 
that hall resounded the clarion notes of such eminent people as Abraham 
Lincoln, Daniel Webster, Charles Sumner, Garrison, Wendell Phillips, 
Everett, Winthrop, Douglass, John Brown, Hale, Louis Kossuth, Fr. 
Matthew, John B. Gough, Henry Clay, Jenny Lind, W. M. Thackeray, and 
many others. 

The last public gathering in the old city hall proper was May 4, 1898, 
when the surviving voters of 1 848 assembled to say farewell to the venerable 
hall, sacred to them, and soon to be pulled down. 

The clock on the old City Hall, was originally on the old Old South 
Church, and now occupies a prominent place in the tower of the Coes 
Wrench Co. 's plant. It bears this inscription, "Abel Stowell made me in 
1800." 

The cornerstone of the new city hall was laid September 12, 1896. 
The building was dedicated April 28, 1898, and occupied May 1, 1898. 
The cost of the buildings and furnishings was $650,000. 



33 




New Worcester City Hal 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The Tablets Placed in the Corridor of New 
City Hall, bear the following inscriptions: 

HERE 

IN 1719 

THE INHABITANTS OF WORCESTER 

ERECTED THE HOUSE OF WORCESTER 

REBUILT IN 1763 

TAKEN DOWN IN 1887. 

FROM ITS PORCH ISAIAH THOMAS 

JULY 14.TH 1776 READ TO THE PEOPLE 

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

IT WAS IN THAT HOUSE LATER KNOWN AS THE 

OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE 

AND JUST NORTH WHERE STOOD UNTIL 1 898 

THE HALL BUILT IN 1 825 

THAT THE PEOPLE OF WORCESTER 

HAVE GOVERNED THEMSELVES FROM 

THE BEGINNING AS TOWN AND CITY 

IN FREEDOM AND IN HONOR 

THE COMMON HARD BY 

SET APART AS A TRAINING FIELD IN 1 684 

WAS THE PRINCIPAL BURIAL PLACE 

OF WORCESTER FROM 1 724 TO 1 824. 

HERE GATHERED THE SOLDIERS 

OF WORCESTER COUNTY 

FOR THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 

AND THE WAR FOR THE UNION 



HERE 

JUNE 28, 1843 

WAS THE GREAT MASS MEETING 

WHICH ORGANIZED 

THE POLITICAL MOVEMENT 

BEGUN TO PRESERVE TO FREEDOM 

THE VAST TERRITORY 

BETWEEN THE MISSISSIPPI AND THE PACIFIC 

AND ENDED BY THE ABOLITION 

OF SLAVERY THROUGHOUT THE CONTINENT 



35 




Main Street, Worcester (same location), in 1914 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



From Old Worcester to New Worcester 

IN AN UPPER corridor of the Worcester City Hall stands two suits of 
armor, the gift of the City of Worcester in Old England to Worcester 
in New England, and they are only one gift of many such courtesies 
which have been exchanged between the mother and daughter cities and 
which have linked and kept loyal the association between the two countries. 
The suits of armor are part of a gift of nine suits which, with brass cannon, 
were presented to the Old Worcester by a former member of the Worcester 
corporation as having been used by the soldiers of King Charles the Second 
at the battle of Worcester, September 3, 1651 . 

Col. Albert Webb, V. D., J. P., a member of the corporation, and son 
of a former mayor, was chosen by the corporation to the important task 
of gift bearer and of formally presenting them. This presentation took 
place the morning of November 6, 1908, Col. Webb delivering his credentials 
to Mayor James Logan. These contained a letter from John Stallard, 
Mayor of Worcester, and dated from the Guildhall, Worcester, October 16, 
1908. 

In the early history of Worcester, when this newer Worcester was in 
the making, there were various exchanges of letters and sentiments; later 
there were gifts of books from the public libraries. Bricks from the Wor- 
cester Cathedral were put into the building of All Saints Church, the First 
Episcopal (Church of England) church in Worcester. 



37 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



George Merrill Wright — Machinist, 
Farmer, Mayor 

GEORGE M. WRIGHT, treasurer and general manager of the 
Wright Wire Co., one of the largest manufacturers in his line in the 
United States, was born in Clinton, April 12, 1865. He came of 
that sturdy New England stock — the Wright family — many members of 
which have made names for themselves in the machinery and wire weaving 
industry. 

After attending the public schools of Clinton, he took the business 
course at Foster's Business College, Worcester, and finished at the Monson 
Academy. In 1882 he began drafting machinery the necessary prelimin- 
ary to his later success, under the supervision of his father, George F. 
Wright, an expert mechanical engineer, who was master mechanic of the 
Clinton Wire Cloth Co. for 20 years. 

At the end of a year the son had shown great adaptability for new ideas 
in mechanics, and it was but a short time after he was found experimenting 
with the construction of machinery of his own devising. It was not George 
M. Wright alone that began work in Palmer as a machinist, it was George 
M. Wright the product of noted mechanics, of the spirit and inheritance of 
true men who made the United States what it is. 

In 1885, Mr. Wright, in company with his father, George F. Wright, 
and brother, Herbert M. Wright, entered into the manufacture of wire 
cloth and netting in a small way at Palmer, under the firm name of the 
Wright Wire Cloth Company. Of this company he was appointed business 
manager. At its inception the company employed about six workmen. In 
1889 the company gave employment to 60 men, and at that period re- 
moved its business to Worcester, changing the firm name to the Wright & 
Colton Wire Cloth Company, until in 1889, when upon the retirement of 
S. H. Colton, George M. Wright was elected treasurer. From a small be- 
ginning, with limited capital, this business has been developed into a big 
concern, with a capital stock of $250,000, giving employment to about 
500 workmen, and doing an annual business of about $1,000,000. 

The weaving factories at Worcester, and the large plant at Palmer, are 
fully equipped with machinery and appliances of improved type, some of 
which were invented and patented by Mr. Wright. 

The public life of Mr. Wright was begun in 1900, when he was elected 
councilman of Ward 6. 

He also served in the Council the following year and was elected 
alderman in 1902. 

In 1912 he was elected mayor of Worcester by 2,330, largest plurality 
ever given candidate for first term, and re-elected December 9, 1913, by 
5,843, the largest plurality in the history of the city. He is a 32nd degree 
mason. 

39 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester's Municipal Affairs 

THERE HAVE been 33 mayors of Worcester since the time of the 
first Chief Magistrate, Levi Lincoln in 1848. 

There are 213 miles of public streets in Worcester, 23 miles of 
paved streets, 93 miles of brick sidewalks, 9 miles of concrete sidewalks, 34 
miles of granolithic sidewalks, 66 miles of sanitary and surface sewers. 

There are 1,058 arc lights, 587 Welsbach gas street lights, 1,918 
Tungstens. 

Water is supplied the city from ten reservoirs with a storage capacity 
of 3,445,480,000 gallons. The total cost of the water works up to December 
1, 1913, was $6,086,705.58. The income from water rates up to that date 
was $448,366.95. 

An extensive sewage purification works has been established at Quin- 
sigamond Village, one of Worcester's suburbs, which had a valuation 
December 1, 1913, of $793,000. It was first operated in 1888, and has been 
added to almost annually since that time and covers 74 acres. The entire 
sewer system of Worcester has cost $5,500,000. 

There were 15,447 dwellings in Worcester December 1, 1913, and the 
valuation of the city at that date was $153,058,968. The assessed polls in 
1913 were 53,696, and the rate of taxation in 1913 was $17.60. 

In December, 1913, there were 26,270 registered male voters and 802 
female voters. 

Worcester possesses a very efficient Police Department. There are 
27 officials, 186 patrolmen and 20 reserve patrolmen, members of the de- 
partment. There are two police precincts which have been established for 
more than 30 years. There are 55 call stations situated throughout the city. 

The City Ordinance providing for the establishment of a night watch, 
was passed by the City Council May 6, 1850. Following the passage of 
this ordinance, Mayor Chapin appointed as the first regular night watch- 
men, eight men to fill these positions. Worcester was incorporated as a 
city February 29, 1848. Section 8 of the Act provided that the Mayor and 
Aldermen should have power to appoint constables, city marshal, assistant 
marshal, and all other police officers. Up to this time there were twelve 
constables, no salaries being paid them, the only source of income being fees 
from the town. 

There is an equally up-to-date Fire Department consisting of 18 fire 
stations, 236 men with 288 signal boxes and 2,4|3 hydrants. A splendid 
equipment of fire engines, motor driven hose wagons and other apparatus. 
The scheduled valuations of fire stations is $323,550 and all real estate 
amounts to $417,913. 

Worcester has long been known as an educational centre. 

40 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



There are four high schools here, and they have a total of 3,451 pupils 
enrolled as follows: 

Classical High 825 

English High 913 

South High 900 

North High 813 

The original cost of the High School Buildings was: 

Classical High $130,000 

English High $190,000 

South High $180,000 

North High (Salisbury Street $70,000 

North High (Sycamore Street) $18,000 

The number of graduates from high schools June, 1913, was: 

Classical High 98 

English High 134 

South High 103 



Total 335 

There were no graduates from the North High Schools as they have 
only within a year been changed from grammar to high schools. 

There are 50 graded schools in the city, with 22,946 pupils taught by 
741 teachers. The evening schools have 125 teachers for 2,532 pupils, 
representing the 42 different nationalities in Worcester's population. In 
addition to the above, Worcester also has two trade schools — one for boys, 
established in 1909, and one for girls established in 191 1. Special courses 
are laid out for the boys in machine work, steam, gasoline and mechanical 
engineering, carpentering, patternmaking, cabinetmaking, and other trades. 

The estimated cost of buildings erected in Worcester in 1912 and 1913 
was $1 1,477,095, surely indicating Worcester to be a City of Prosperity, 
comparing very favorably with any city its size in the country. 

Worcester has never suffered from a business depression such as is 
common in other cities. This is due more particularly to its diversified 
industries. 

It has also been an unusually favored community so far as industrial 
troubles are concerned, for there have been few labor difficulties in Worces- 
ter in any line of industry the past quarter of a century. This is due very 
largely to the liberal influences in many directions of the Worcester Branch, 
National Metal Trades Association, which has been in existence for the 
past 1 3 years. 

The Worcester Labor Bureau, operated by the Branch, was the first 
free Employment Office established in Massachusetts. In the years of its 
existence it has secured thousands of efficient workers for firms wanting 
such, and at the same time furnished suitable positions to workmen and 
workwomen desiring work. The Worcester Labor Bureau has been located 
at 44 Front Street since its inception, and this has proved a central place 
for people looking for employment. 

41 




§8 

eg 



U° 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Seven hospitals of various kinds carry on their widespread beneficent 
work in the city. The City Hospital is the largest. The Act of the Massa- 
chusetts Legislature establishing the City Hospital was approved May 
23, 1871. The hospital ordinance was passed by the City Council June 
26, 1871, and the hospital opened October 23 the same year. The first 
patient was admitted October 26, 1871. The hospital was first located in 
the Bigelow Mansion, corner Front and Church Streets, and the number of 
beds in 1871 was 12. 

George Jaques, benefactor, who bought 3 ! 2 acres of land for $35,000, 
which he gave to the city as a site for a hospital, died August 24, 1872, 
bequeathing $200,000 for a hospital. The hospital was removed to Jaques 
Homestead, Wellington Street, January 20, 1874, and the number of beds 
in 1874 was 16. 

The hospital was removed to the present site December 8, 1881, and 
the Training School for nurses established September, 1883. The Gill 
Memorial and Salisbury Wards were opened 1886 and the Knowles Mater- 
nity in June two years later. The Out-Patient Department was begun 
March 17, 1890, while the Samuel Winslow Surgery was inaugurated 
July, 1896. 

The Male Surgical Building opened October, 1896. The Thayer 
Memorial Home for Nurses began its work June, 1898, and the heat, light 
and power plant was completed in 1900. 

The City buildings, costing $300,000, were opened in 1904 and the 
number of buildings comprising the present plant is 20, the value of the 
buildings $676,904 and the total amount of endowment $267,055.41. 

The number of in-patients treated since the opening of the hospital is 
75,247. There were 5,619 treated in 1913. 

The total expenditures in 1913 were $154,908.57, number of beds 300, 
while the weekly per capita cost in 1913 was $1 1.08. 

The other hospitals are: Isolation Hospital, founded 1896; Worcester 
State Hospital, opened 1833; Worcester State Asylum, opened 1877; 
Memorial Hospital, includes the Washburn Free Dispensary, endowed by 
the late Ichabod Washburn. The Dispensary was established 1874; the 
hospital opened 1888; Worcester Hahnemann Hospital, opened 1896; St. 
Vincent Hospi al, opened 1893. 

There are 120 churches and missions in Worcester representing the 
leading denominations, with 160 clergymen to minister to the spiritual 
wants of the people, while 366 nurses attend to their physical infirmities. 
There are 260 doctors and 1 7 1 lawyers. 

Worcester is the Shire City of Worcester County, and with the single 
exception of Boston is the largest city in Massachusetts. It has 10 wards 
with 43 voting precincts. 

The city's expenditures for improvements, additions and construc- 
tion work in all its departments for the year was $5,548,960.11. 

The health of Worcester is one of its greatest assets and attractions. 
It compares very favorably with other cities of the country having a 
similar population composed of nondescript elements. The rate of death 

43 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



per 1,000 of the population for 1913 was 15.25. Excluding deaths at both 
State Insane Hospitals it is 13.91 ; with non-residents excluded it is 12.87. 
These non-residents come from outside the city to enter the various hos- 
pitals; none are included with a Worcester address. 



Some of the Things Worcester Does 

Worcester envelopes carry the correspondence of the world. 

Worcester textile machinery makes the clothes for the natives of all 
countries. 

Worcester manufactures the machines which do the world's labeling. 

Worcester is unique in that it has a machine shop controlled and oper- 
ated by three women. 

Worcester supplies more grinders to the industries of the world than 
any other city. 

Paris sets the styles for gowns; Worcester sets the styles for corsets. 

Anything in pressed steel you can get in Worcester. 

Worcester is the home of the vacuum cleaner. 

Worcester sets the pace for clutches. 

Worcester cutlery carves everything. 

Worcester is IT in optical goods. 

Worcester's shuttles fly hither and yon the world over. 

Worcester is the leader in saw manufacturing. 

Worcester's fine machine tools are known from coast to coast. 

Worcester's auto and cycle chains make travel easier over the roads. 

You can pump anything with the pumps made in Worcester County. 

No machine shop could run smoothly without Worcester's twist drills. 

Worcester's engines run day and night — they work while you sleep. 

This is the steel age — the structural work of Worcester firms is par 
excellence. 

\^ orcester made machines can bring you almost anything by means 
of the nickel-in-the-slot process. 

\^ hen shop men want anything in machine tools they naturally turn 
to Worcester. 

Worcester rolls strong on the rolling mills. 

If you want to see a battery of boilers, come to Worcester. 

For metal ornamental work Worcester is top notch. 

There's no crankiness at all about Worcester's crank shaper. 

"Worcester made invites trade"' — That tells the story about every 
industry. 

"Everything in wire'" is a Worcester motto. 

Worcester manufacturing plants, 700 of them, make over 300.000 
different articles. How's that for variety? 

^ orcester has approximately 2500 mercantile establishments, employ- 
ing about 30,000 people. 

44 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The business of the Worcester retail merchants aggregates over 
$60,000,000 per annum. The city has five large department stores, 
occupying approximately 1 ,000,000 square feet of space. 

The city church property is valued at $3,000,000 

Worcester is the centre of a fertile agricultural country. The interests 
of the farmer, the grower of fruits and vegetables, are being well looked 
after by the Worcester Agricultural Society, nearly a century old, having 
been established in 1818; the Worcester County Horticultural Society, 
organized in 1840; the Massachusetts Fruit Growers Association, the 
Patrons of Husbandry, the Worcester County Market Gardeners' Asso- 
ciation and the Tatnuck Farmers' Club. 

In the Worcester County Musical Association this city possesses the 
oldest music festival given annually, without a break, of any city in the 
country. It was organized in 1858. The Worcester Festival is an annual 
function, known throughout the world by musical people for its high class 
concerts. The leading singers and instrumentalists in the world have 
appeared in Mechanics Hall at the Worcester Festival. 

The Worcester Oratorio Society, organized in 1897, is also favorably 
known because of the series of concerts it presents annually. 

Worcester has a gas producer plant as well as many which consume 
that commodity. 

Worcester has a firm which produces three-quarters of the best finish- 
ing machinery for woolens, worsteds, felts, and cotton and other fabrics 
in the world. 

Worcester has the largest wholesale and retail drug store in the state. 

Worcester has the largest retail provision and grocery store in Massa- 
chusetts. 

No home is complete without some of the thousands of different 
kinds of wire goods made in Worcester. 

Every industry uses grinding wheels — and Worcester makes wheels 
for them all. 

Every race in every zone finds exhilaration on Worcester-made skates. 

The wool crop of the world is sheared with Worcester-made clippers. 

The world's machinery is put together with Worcester-made wrenches. 

Monday finds Worcester-made dryers prominent on every landscape. 

For years the world has looked to Worcester for dependable firearms. 

Worcester has the largest muslin underwear garment factory in the 
world. 

Worcester has the largest factory in the United States for the manu- 
facture of organ materials. 

The largest valentine factory in the world is located in Worcester. 

Worcester has the largest manufactories in the universe for the manu- 
facture of wire, wire springs and wire novelties. 

Worcester's textile machinery output is the largest of any city in the 
world. 

Worcester has the largest and only exclusive plant for the building of 
wool spinning machinery in the United States. 

45 



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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester turns out 75 per cent, of the best grade of automobile crank 
shafts of the country. 

Worcester produces more envelopes of all sizes and kinds than any- 
other city in the universe. 

The Heart of the Commonwealth is responsible for the beauty of 
figure and poise and attractiveness of the women of the world. It manu- 
factures more corsets and the finest styles of any city in the world. Wom- 
anhood owes a great deal to the inventive genius and style of Worcester 
corset designers. 

Worcester had, according to the 1910 census, the largest percentage 
growth (23.3) in population in Massachusetts for cities of over 100,000 
people. 

Worcester is the home office of one of the oldest insurance companies 
in the United States, having insurance in force of about $175,000,000. 

Worcester is the home of the two largest and strongest companies 
in the country providing health and accident benefits for Masons and 
Odd Fellows. 

Worcester has four insurance companies, one life and three mutual 
fire insurance companies, whose total assets are over $44,000,000 with a 
total surplus aggregating nearly $4,000,000. 

Worcester boasts up-to-date daily newspapers, and the city is known 
in newspaper life as the nursery of more brilliant, live newspaper men and 
women, preparing them for metropolitan work, than any other city in 
the country. 

Worcester's educational institutions, from its public schools to its 
colleges and university, are classed with the best in the country. 

Worcester is coming to be recognized as a leading convention city. 

Worcester is known as one of the great cities of the country for lodges 
and orders of all kinds. 

Worcester has 80-cent gas. 

Worcester has 32,000 telephone subscribers. 

Worcester has never lost a penny by a bank failure. 

Worcester has 6,000 men employed in the building trades. 

Worcester is one big City with an overwhelming number of its in- 
dustries operated on the Open Shop System. 

Worcester is a Port of Entry, the duties received in 1913 being 
$191,472.46. 

Worcester has three Colleges — Clark, Holy Cross and Assumptionist. 

Worcester has as cheap electric light as any city in New England. 

Worcester has one of the largest wallpaper factories in the United 
States. 

In Worcester was printed the first music from types in this country. 

The first English dictionary printed in this country was printed in 
Worcester. 

The first Emigrant Aid Society was organized in this city of emigrants 
in 1854 by Hon. Eli Thayer. 



47 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester was the first city in the United States to buy land for a 
public park. 

Worcester has the largest wholesale and retail wallpaper warehouse in 
New England. 

Worcester has the largest firms in the United States manufacturing 
paper box machinery. 

Worcester can produce in its envelope factories 15,000,000 envelopes 
per day, and that would only be an ordinary day's work. 

Worcester's newest hotel, in which the convention of the National 
Metal Trades Association meets, the Bancroft, cost $1,250,000, and the 
delegates can judge for themselves what like it is. 

Outside of the American Steel & Wire Co., Worcester has one of the 
largest steel and wire plants in the United States, not a subsidiary of the 
United States Steel Corporation. 

In automobile and bicycle chains, Worcester has a plant, belonging to 
the National Metal Trades Association, which turns out 75 per cent, of that 
product in the United States 

Worcester Polytechnic Institute is one of the leading institutions of its 
kind in the world. 

Worcester wrenches have been made for over half a century by one of 
the members of the National Metal Trades Association, and the product 
is a million annually. 

Worcester has had dull periods when business was not as good as at 

other times, but it has never experienced a business depression in the sense 

that other cities have suffered, because of the great variety of its industries. 

Worcester Art Museum has an endowment of $3,000,000. It is one of 

the finest in the country. 

Many of the most handsome buildings, public and private, in the 
country have been erected by Worcester contractors, notably Norcross 
Brothers and J. W. Bishop Co. 

Worcester has a cold storage plant with a capacity of 400 cars, and 
also produces 8,000 tons of pure ice. 

Worcester is the home of the American Antiquarian Society, possessing 
130,000 volumes, and 70,000 pamphlets. 

Six miles of leather belting are made daily in Worcester, in one of the 
greatest leather plants of its kind in the world. 

Worcester's public library has 190,000 volumes. The Board of Trustees 
has just opened three branch libraries in various suburbs of the city, the 
buildings alone costing $25,000 each, Andrew Carnegie giving Worcester 
$75,000 during the administration of James Logan as mayor for this purpose. 
Worcester Trade schools for both boys and girls are monuments to the 
educational enterprise on industrial lines of wide-awake Worcester citizens. 
The Worcester Woman's Clubhouse is one of the most attractive and 
costly in the country. It was designed by a woman and paid for by women's 
efforts. It is a credit to Worcester's womanhood. 

Worcester's trolley system reaches 35 towns within a radius of a score 
of miles and touches a population of about half a million people. 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Loring Coes, and Mayor Blake, in 1872, were the first men of Worcester 
to make a balloon ascension. They landed at Pepperell, 45 miles away. 

The value of the produced goods in 447 establishments in Worcester 
for the year 1912 was $86, 3 18,715. The stock and materials used amounted 
to $48,637,656; the money invested in these 447 establishments was 
$73,242,657; the amount of wages paid in these establishments for that year 
was $18,401,919, and the average yearly earnings of the men and women, 
skilled and unskilled was $604.41 . 

In the Worcester machine shops and foundries, according to Director 
Gettemy, of the State Bureau of Statistics, there is invested in capital 
$13,647,520, and the wages paid in 1912 was $3,730,932, the average yearly 
earnings of all the employees in these foundries and shops being $659.99. 



Worcester's Financial Standing 

THE FOLLOWING statement in regard to the debt and borrowing 
capacity of the city of Worcester, submitted by the City Treasurer 
Feb. 14, 1914, is interesting as showing the financial standing of the 
city: 

Total funded and bonded debt, Feb. 1, 1914. $12,824,325.00 

Less total Sinking Fund, 5,359,958 . 62 



Net bonded indebtedness, $7,464,366.38 

Present borrowing capacity inside debt limit, $637,618.96 

In figuring the net debt of the city, it is customary among invest- 
ment security dealers, to exclude Water Debt, on the theory that the 
Water Department is self-supporting, which is true in the case of Wor- 
cester. 

Total Water Debt, $4,955,000 . 00 

Less Water Loan Sinking Fund, 2,467,025 .40 

Leaving a net Water Debt of $2,487,974 . 60 
Eliminating this from 7,464,366 38 

A balance of 4,976,391.78 is obtained 

which is the net bonded debt exclusive of water. 



Entertainment Houses and Halls 

There are eight theatres and pleasure houses in Worcester with a 
seating capacity of 1 1 ,500; there are 50 halls, the largest of which is Me- 
chanics Hall on Main Street with seating capacity of 1,750. 

4 49 




h 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Park System 



WORCESTER is unusually favored so far as breathing spaces for 
its people are concerned. It possesses 18 parks with a total 
acreage of over 1 ,000. Green Hill Park is the largest, containing 
500 acres. The parks have been made most attractive by a Parks Com- 
mission which has added to the natural beauty of these public resorts by 
artistic touches in many ways. 

The size of the various parks is as follows: 

Boynton Park 
Burncoat Park 
Brooks Street Land 
Chandler Hill Park 
Common 
Crompton Park 
Dodge Park 
Elm Park 
Fairmount Square, 
Grant Square 
Green Hill Park 
Hadwen Park 
Institute Park 
Lake Park 
Middle River Park 
North Shore Reservation 
Salisbury Park 
University Park 



113 


acres 


41. 


51 


1. 


75 " 


80. 


34 " 


4. 


8 


15 


25 " 


13 


" 


88 


" 




95 " 


1 


55 " 


500 


" 


50 


" 


25 


.44 •' 


110 


•• 


8 


.1 


5 


.95 " 


19.99 


14 





Total 



1,092.055 acres 



Worcester Post Office 



THE PRESENT building on Main Street is the first owned by the 
Federal Government. The land and building cost $568,365. It 
was finished in 1896. It requires I 1 1 carriers and 88 clerks to trans- 
act the post office work for Worcester's busy people. The gross receipts 
of the post office for the year ending June 30, 1913, amounted to $529,- 
456.64. 

There are 14 stations in the city in addition to the general Post Office. 
Worcester's postmaster is James W. Hunt, who has had 40 years' 
experience in the government service. 



Si 



PARK SYSTEM 

WORCESTER, MASS. 

MARCH, 1910. 



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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester — A City of Hills 

WORCESTER is most ideally situated. Soon after it was settled 
as a town, it began to lengthen its cords and strengthen its stakes, 
until now it is built on 1 5 hills, making Jerusalem, with its seven 
hills, look somewhat small. There's Winter Hill and Wigwam Hill, Ban- 
croft Hill and Hancock Hill, Pakachoag Hill and Newton Hill, hills of the 
Indians and hills of the Fairies and hills with Bible names and hills just 
as ancient but with modern nomenclature. The beauty of the hills is not 
in their names, but in the fact that many grand educational institutions 
with proud histories and prouder alumni adorn their summit, that they 
afford a glorious view of the thriving industrial centre which lies at their 
feet, and that intermingling with their woods and crags and lakes and 
green sward, is the snug little cottage of the mechanic, the bungalow of the 
suburbanite or the mansion of the manufacturer or merchant. 

From these hilltops the denizens of the west side can catch a glimpse 
of the glorious sunrises with which Worcester is favored, and the dwell- 
ers of the east side may watch the equally vari-colored and beautiful sun- 
sets over the Tatnuck Hills. Rural grandeur beautifies Worcester. On 
the east at our door is the attractive Lake Quinsigamond, on the west 
we are guarded by the stately Asnebumskit, to the north rises the majestic 
tower of Mt. Wachusett, and to the south may be found the famed waters 
of Chargoggagogmanchauggaggogchaubunagungamaug. 

Here is a list of Worcester's hills, their locations and heights: 
Bancroft Heights — West of Salisbury Street, near Park Avenue, Height, 

720 feet. 
Bigelow Hill — Burncoat Street, half mile north of Adams Square, Height, 

725 feet. 
Chandler Hill — South of Belmont Street, Height, 721 feet. 
Green Hill — East of Lincoln Street, terminus of Cushing Street, Height, 

777 feet. 
Hancock Hill — Between Salisbury and Forest Streets, Height, 780 feet. 
Messinger Hill or Fairmount — North of North Street, Height, 620 feet. 
Millstone Hill — North of Belmont Street, Height, 760 feet. 
Mount Ararat — South of Ararat Street, Height, 780 feet. 
Newton Hill — Between Park Avenue, Highland and Pleasant streets, 

Height, 672 feet. 
Oak Hill — Between Bloomingdale Road and Plantation Street, Height, 

700 feet. 
Pakachoag Hill or Mt. St. James — Near College of the Holy Cross, 

Height, 693 feet. 
Parker Hill — Fowler Street, near City line, Height, 1 ,000 feet. 
Union Hill — Providence Street, Height, 625 feet. 
Wigwam Hill — Plantation Street, Height, 560 feet. 
Winter Hill — Grove Street, near City line, Height, 980 feet. 

Worcester's elevation is 481 feet above tide water. 

S3 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Up Wi' The Hammer, Mate 

Up wi' the hammer, mate, labor is sweet, 
Rain down the blows while the iron has heat; 
Make the sparks scamper, like sleet 'fore the gale, 
Flood the old smiddy wi' bright golden hail, 
Ilka blow brings the job nearer an en', 
Ilka lick brings it to shape, as ye ken; 
Strike true and sturdily, toil's a delight, 
Hauns may be black, but the siller is white. 

Listen, my lad, to the roar of the blast, 

Flames from the earth-pit are leaping up fast; 

Swing high your hammer, there's siller to win, 

Peg away, peg away, never give in. 

Kings may rear princes, but we are the men, 

Labor's the dowry on which we depend; 

Bread tastes the sweetest when worked for fu' sair, 

Laugh and be jolly though humble your fare. 

Bang! bang! bang! — bang! bang! bang! 
Hammers beat time to a cheery Scotch sang; 
Swiftly and busily time slips along, 
Bang! bang! bang! — Bang! bang! bang! 



55 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester — A Manufacturing Centre 

IN THE, value of manufactures, Worcester, of course, is second in vol- 
ume and importance only to that of Metropolitan Boston. The year 
ending December 3, 1912, according to Charles F. Gettemy, director 
of the State Bureau of Statistics, "marks the highest level ever reached in 
the history of Massachusetts manufactures," and what is true of the state 
is also true of the City of Worcester. The value of goods produced in the 
factories and shops of Worcester for that year, as shown by the returns 
from 447 establishments, indicate that there is invested in those estab- 
lishments $73,242,657, that the value of stock and materials used amounted 
to $48,637,656, that the amount of wages paid in those manufacturing 
establishments during the year was $18,401,919 and that the average 
yearly earnings of men and women, skilled and unskilled, were $601.41 
The greatest number of wage earners employed was 34,728, while the value 
of the product manufactured amounted to $86,318,715. 

Of the above, so far as foundry and machine shop products alone are 
concerned, the following figures are exceedingly interesting, as indicating 
the vastness of these two single industries alone in the Heart of the Com- 
monwealth. In Worcester there are 72 foundry and machine shops. The 
invested capital is $13,647,520. The value of the stock and materials 
used amounted to $4,439,819, the amount of wages paid during the year 
was $3,730,932, the average yearly earnings was $659.99 and the wage 
earners employed numbered 5,653, while the value of the product was 
$11,480,800. 

In Fitchburg, the leading city in Worcester County outside of Wor- 
cester, there are 19 machine shops and foundries, with capital invested 
amounting to $1,582,997; the value of the stock and the materials used 
was $523,958, while the amount of wages paid during the year was $514,442. 
The average yearly earnings was $660.39, and the wage earners employed 
numbered 779, while the value of the product was $1,617,827. 

The two cities of Worcester and Fitchburg combined on machine 
shops and foundry products make this splendid showing: 



Number 
Establish- 
ments 



Capital 
Invested 



Value 

Stock 

Materials 

Used 



Amount 

Wages 

Paid 

Annually 



Average 

Yearly 

Earnings 



Wage Value 

Earners ' of 

Employed Product 



91 



$15,230,497 $4,963,777 



$4,245,374 $744.00 



6,432 



$13,098,627 



The average yearly wage for all industries, men and women, skilled 
and unskilled, for Worcester was $551.36, or $10.60 per week. These 
figures are based on a running time in Worcester in 1912 of 297 days of 
work. 



S6 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Director Gettemy says in his report: "The City of Worcester, second 
in importance, owes its industrial position to its foundries and machine 
shops, iron and steel works and wire mills, and there are also extensive 
manufactures of woolen and worsted goods." This being so, it behooves 
all employers of labor to join hands with the National Metal Trades Asso- 
ciation manufacturers in not only preserving the splendid report which 
Statistical Director Gettemy gives of the Heart of the Commonwealth, 
but, if possible, make it better in the years to come. 

No country in the world is unacquainted with Worcester's high grade 
machines. 

Some Kinds of Machinery and Specialties 
Made in Worcester 

LATHES, Planers, Drills, Grinders, Shapers, Agricultural Machinery, 
Automatic Bottling Machinery, Automatic Farm Machinery, Auto- 
matic Machines, Automatic Pin Machines, Automatic Printing 
Machines, Automatic Wire Forming Machines, Band Splitting Machines, 
Barbed Fencing Machines, Boiler Sheet Drilling Machines, Bolt Cutting 
Machines, Bonnet Machinery, Boot and Shoe Machinery, Border Trimming 
Machinery, Bottle Feeding Machines, Bottle Stoppering Machines 
Box Machinery, Brazing Machinery, Brushing Machinery, Calico Printing 
Machinery, Card Cutting Machines, Card Feeding Machines, Card 
Grinding Machines, Card Machines, Carpet Brushing Machinery, Carpet 
Dusting Machinery, Carpet Shearing Machinery, Circular Saw Machinery, 
Cordage Machinery, Cotton Machinery, Counter Sinking Machinery, 
Crown Feeding Machines, Envelope Folding Machines, Envelope 
Making Machines, Farming Machines, Feeding Machines, Foundry 
Molding Machines, Grain Cleaning Machines, Gun Barrel Matting 
Machines, Gun Barrel Polishing Machines, Harvesting Machinery, 
Hat Machinery, Horse Clipping Machines, Ice Machinery, Label- 
ing Machinery, Laundry Machinery, Loom Keyseating Machinery, 
Loom Shedding Machines, Mat Shearing Machines, Milling Machines, 
Mill Machinery, Mitering Machines, Moulding Machines, Mowing Ma- 
chines, Napping Machines, Needle Feeding Machines, Nut Capping 
Machines, Packers' Machines, Paper Box Machines, Bending Machines, 
Board Lining Machines, Covering Machinery, Creasing Machines, Fold- 
ing Box Machines, Gluing Machines, Gumming Machines, Matchbox 
Machines, Paper Slitting Machines, Round Cutting Machines, Scoring 
Machines, Slotting Machines, Rewinding Machines, Topping Machines, 
Wirecorner Staying Machines, Paper Cutting Machines, Paper Finishing 
Machines, Pegging Machines, Picking Machinery, Planing Machinery, 
Plantation Machinery (all kinds), Power Transmission Machinery, Pulley 
Turning Machinery, Pump Boring Machinery, Punch Making Machinery, 
Railroad Track Machinery, Razor Stropping Machines, Reaming Machin- 
ery, Rolling Mills, Rug Shearing Machines, Sawing Machinery, Shaping 

57 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Machinery, Slitting Machines, Special Machines, Spindle Drilling Ma- 
chines, Spraying Machines, Woodworking Machines, Steel Billet Cutting 
Machines, Steel Ringburring Machines, Tapestry Machines, Tapping 
Machines, Textile Machinery (all kinds), Thread Machinery, Tire Drilling 
Machinery, Treeing Machines, Twisting Machinery, Universal Saw 
Machines, Warp Stock Machinery, Warp Machinery, Wiredrawing 
Machinery, Sewing Machines, Wool Machinery, Boilers, Dies, Sta- 
tionary Engines, Handcuffs, Wrenches, Fire Arms, Crankshafts, Drop 
Forgings, Steam Railroad Cars, Drive Chains and Sprockets, Sheep Shear- 
ing Machines, Iron and Steel Construction, Patterns, Sheet Metal 
Specialties, Wire Specialties, Skates, Pressed Steel Specialties, Vacuum 
Cleaners and Piano Hardware, Optical Goods, Cutlery, Shuttles, Steam 
Pumps, Special Machinery, Steam Gas Engines, Railroad Machine Tools, 
Saws, Files, Irregular Turning Lathes, Boring Machines, Carpets, Vises, 
Mechanics' Fine Tools, Machinists' Tools, Twist Drills, Street Railway 
Cars, Broaching Machines, Boring Machines, Cabinet Making, Emery 
Wheels, Envelopes, Brass Molding, Grinding Wheels, Valentines, Corsets, 
Wiredrawing, Wire Articles, Ornamental Steel Work, Looms, Automatics, 
Rolling Mills, Sewing Machines, Presses, Elevators, Chuck Lathes, Mag- 
netic Chucks, Drawing Tables, Woodworking Machinery, Street Sprnklers, 
Wire Cloth Machinery. 

Three-Quarters of a Century of Machine 
Tool Operation 

SEVENTY-EIGHT years ago Salmon W. and John Putnam, two 
brothers, men well and favorably known throughout New England 

for ^heir mechanical ability, started a shop in Fitchburg, to do 
general mill repairs and to "perfect" an engine lathe and gear cutter. 
For many years they were considered the leaders in their line and the name 
of Putnam Machine Company has always stood for the best in metal 
working and railroad machine tools. 

The elder brother, John, was a noted violin player and in the realm 
of jigs and hornpipes was known as a "crackerjack. " The younger brother, 
Salmon, was a fine performer on the clarinet, and, as one of the surviving 
sons of S. W. Putnam says, "It is doubtless true that in the earlier stages 
of their business careers, when things in general took on a blue-black tinge 
and manufacturing conditions rendered the outlook anything but luminous, 
they sometimes got together in their little 10 x 12 office and with their 
inspiring music kept the hobgoblins at bay by wafting heavenward their 
harmonious notes of prayer. " 

In 1850 or thereabouts Sylvester Wright (locally well known as 
"Skipper" Wright) was taken into the Putnam Company and was given 
charge of the lathe department. He remained with the company about 10 
years and then formed a company for the manufacture of lathes, known as 

59 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



the Fitchburg Machine Company, and later the Fitchburg Machine Works. 
This company, after the death of Mr. Wright, was managed by James L. 
Chapman, his son-in-law, and the product was in the front rank of ma- 
chine tools. It is now the home of the "Lo-swing" Lathe, so-called. 
Although Worcester seems to have seen the beginning of the machine tool 
trade, Fitchburg certainly had the start, through the foresight and the 
ability of the Putnam brothers. 

In the Worcester Almanac and Directory of 1849, there appeared two 
advertisements : 

WOODBURN, LIGHT & CO. 

union street 

Engine and Hand Lathes, Iron Planers, Williams Improved 
Drilling Machines 

JOSIAH WOODBURN JOSEPH F. LIGHT 

JOHN WILLIAMS CHAS. WOOD 

also, the following: 

SAMUEL FLAGG & CO. 

MANUFACTURERS OF 

Engine Lathes, Hand Lathes, Planing Machines for Iron 
Slide Rests, Perpendicular Drills 

merrifield's bldg. union street 

SAMUEL FLAGG HENRY HOLLAND 

LUCIUS W. POND EPH. BELLOWS, JR. 

It will be noticed that both these firms did business in Merrifield's 
Building. This was built by William T. Merrifield in 1835 and rented 
with power to tenants in any amount of floor space wanted. This building, 
together with the Stone Building at the South End, called Worcester 
Junction, built by the Estabrooks and rented the same way, were the two 
great factors in making Worcester one of the leading mechanical cities of 
the country. 

Many of the great industries in the country had their humble origin 
in one or the other of these buildings. The Merrifield Building was burned 
to the ground in 1854 and the tenants lost everything. The Insurance Com- 
panies nearly all failed and the tool business was hard hit; but notwith- 
standing in 1855 the following tool companies were doing business in 
Worcester. 

Wood & Light, Junction Shop; Williams & Rich, Union Street; Samuel 
Flagg & Co., Central Street; Thayer & Houghton, Washington St.; Shepard 
Lathe & Co., Junction Shop; C. Whitcomb & Co., Presses and Planers. 

It will be interesting to note at this time what became of the graduates 
from these firms in after years. 

The F. E. Reed Company, Prentice Bros. Co., P. Blaisdell Co., from 
the Wood & Light Co.; Lucius W. Pond, David W. Pond, Pond Machine 

6l 





Bancroft Tower, Worcester, Mass. 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Tool Co., from the Samuel Flagg & Co.; New York Steam Engine Co.. 
from the Thayer & Houghton Co.; Lathe & Morse Tool Co., Draper Ma- 
chine Tool Co., from the Shepard & Lathe Co.; and Whitcomb Mfg. Co., 
from the C. Whitcomb & Co. 

It was at one of the fairs of the Worcester County Mechanics Associa- 
tion and the Worcester County Agricultural Society, in 1851, that a prize 
was given to the Wood & Light Company for an engine lathe, the carriage 
of which was moved by mechanism in an apron that was fastened to the 
carriage. This was not done by the means of the rack and pinion gear, but 
by means of a bevel gear nut on the lead screw. All lathes up to this time 
were known as chain feed lathes operated by a large wooden hand wheel at 
the head end of the bed. If the lathe was over six feet long, a hand rope 
running in grooved pulleys was placed on the front side of bed. 

This firm was also awarded a prize for an iron planer, the table being 
driven with a rack and gear instead of a screw and nut which was the 
common practice. 

Some of Worcester's oldest machinists relate with interest that 
60 or 70 years ago one would often see some of the workmen in the shops 
smoking at their work. This seems very strange now in this age of efficiency 
and shop rules, but not so strange after all, if one will remember that in 
1848, when Worcester became a city, Section 41 of the new city ordinances 
read as follows: 

"No person shall smoke any cigar or pipe in any of the roads, high- 
ways or streets." So that if a machinist happened to be debarred from 
smoking in the privacy of his home and could not smoke in the street, the 
shop seemed to be the only place where he could obtain solid comfort 
through his old dudeen. 

Milled Machine Screws 

IN 1866 the Worcester County Mechanics Association, at a fair by 
the Association in Mechanics Hall, awarded the Worcester firm of 
Gifford & Bagley, doing business in the Junction Shop, a diploma for an 
advancement in the mechanic arts by the display of a case of milled 
machine screws, samples of those made and put on the market by the 
firm during the year 1866. 

A. W. Gifford was the designer of the machinery that enabled the firm 
to place the screws on the market and started the foundation for an indus- 
try that has revolutionized the whole machine trade. All old-time Worces- 
ter machinists still tell of their apprentice days in the '60's when the first 
12 or 18 months were confined wholly to the making of set and cap screws 
on an engine lathe. The milled machine screw industry changed to pleas- 
urean apprentice life very materially and produced a better article at 
a very much reduced cost. 



63 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester's Valhalla in Mechanics, in Inven- 
tions and in Business Management 

THE celebrated inventors, men of mechani- 
cal genius, business enterprise and integ- 
rity of Worcester, well deserve to have 
their names inscribed in their City's Royal 
Valhalla. The majority of them have won fame 
imperishable, and are laid at rest, but others 
still remain, bringing honor and renown to 
Worcester's industrial life and history 

There are few cities in the United States 
which could duplicate such a galaxy of Master 
Minds in the Arts and Crafts, in Business and 
Commerce, as the Roll of Honor which follows: 

Washburn, Moen, Morgan, Goddard, 
Wright, Marshall, Daniels. Knowles, Crompton, 
Wyman, Hutchins, Gordon, Wattie, Curtis, 
Marble, Bassett, Gessner. 

Ethan Allen, Johnson, Harrington, Richard- 
son, Brooks, Gifford, Barton, Coes, Coates, 
Winslow, Whittall, Thomas, Stockbridge, Wood, 
Light, Pond, Whitcomb, Morse, Thayer, 
Houghton, Blaisdell, Newton, Reed, Prentice, 
Back, Luther, Kidder. Woodward. Higgins, 
Alden, Allen, Jeppson, Norton, Spence, Heald. 
Bradley, Putnam, Simonds, Brown, Fosdick, 
Cowdrey, Flather. Starrett, McGregor, Drury, 
Lapointe, Colvin, Fuller, Beaman, Barr. 

Logan, Swift, Buckley, Sherman, Hill 
Hobbs, Leland, Stewart, Woodland, Matthews. 

Draper, Whitin, Wells, Litchfield, Powell 

Webb, Hildreth. Wheelock, Wesby, Wood, Blanchard, Davis, Hey- 
wood, Hammond, Hill, Forehand, Bates, Dexter, Walker, Davis, 
Graton, Knight, Harrington, Brownell. Sawyer, Rice, Denholm, Brown, 
Maclnnes, Healey, Norcross, Ward, Bishop, Cross, Fiske. Hawes, 
Bigelow, Bullock, Taylor, Burns, Bassett, Cowan, Durfee, Edwards, 
George, Viall. Booth, Taft. Brigham. 



65 




DQ 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Alphabet of Worcester Branch, N. M. T. A. 



A 
B 
C 
D 
E 
F 
G 
H 
I 

J 
K 
L 
M 

N 
O 
P 

Q 

R 
S 
T 
U 
V 

w 

X 

Y 

z 



s for Association, all kinds of fine tools, 

s for Boilers and Broachers which wear. 

s for Clippers to cut off your hair; 

s for Drills and Dies, up to the mark, 

s for Engines, aye ready to start; 

s for Firearms, Forgings and Files, 

s for Grinders, we ship them in piles; 

s for Hardware, varied and well, 

s for Iron, we built this hotel; 

s for Jigs, all level and true. 

is for Knives, with one edge or two; 

s for Lathes and Labeling things, 

s for Metal and washer machines; 

s for National, we've got a wide scope, 

s for Optical goods, help watch the cop, 

s for Planers, Pumps and Pressed Steel, 

s for Quality, our supremest ideal; 

s for Rolling Mills, best made in the states, 

s for Sprockets, Shuttles, Shapers and Skates; 

s for Trades and Textiles supreme, 

s for Universal Boring Machine; 

s for Valves, Vacuum Cleaners and Vises, 

s for Wrenches and Woodworking Devices; 

s for Xenodochy — a stranger — not rooster, 

s for Yell, and we yell for Worcester, 

s for Zeal, we've got it to boost her. 



WORCESTER, WORCESTER, WORCESTER 



67 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Members of Worcester Branch 

Officers and Executive Board for Year 1914-15 

President. JOHN W. HIGGINS, Worcester Pressed Steel Co., Worcester. 
Vice-President, PAUL B. MORGAN, Morgan Construction Co., Worcester. 
Secretary, DONALD TULLOCH, 44 Front Street, Worcester. 
Treasurer, ARTHUR W. BEAMAN. Stockbridge Machine Co., Worcester 

Executive Board. 

GEORGE I. ALDEN, Norton Grinding Co., Worcester. 
ALBERT E. NEWTON, Reed-Prentice Co., Worcester. 

EDWIN C. HARRINGTON, Harrington & Richardson Arms Co., Wor- 
cester. 
W. H. GATES, Baldwin Chain and Manufacturing Co., Worcester. 
FRANK H. ORR, Dupaul-Young Optical Co.. Southbridge. 
H. B. McDONALD, Simonds Manufacturing Co., Fitchburg. 
J H. DRURY, Union Twist Drill Co., Athol 
HERBERT L. FLATHER, Flather & Co., Nashua. N. H. 
F. F. CUTTING, Lapointe Machine Tool Co., Hudson. 

This list will tell Who's Who in the Worcester Branch 
and what they manufacture 

Active 

John J. Adams, Boot and Shoe Machinery and Dies — Worcester, Mass. 

Baldwin Chain Mfg. Co., Drive Chains and Sprockets — Worcester, Mass. 

Coes Wrench Co., Wrenches, Knives — Worcester, Mass. 

Curtis & Marble Machine Co., Cotton and Woolen Machinery — Worces- 
ter, Mass. 

Eastern Bridge & Structural Co., Iron Construction — Worcester, Mass. 

Economic Machinery Co., Labeling and Special Machinery — Worcester, 
Mass. 

David Gessner, Cloth Finishing Machinery — Worcester, Mass. 

Harrington & Richardson Arms Co., Firearms — Worcester, Mass. 

Harwood & Quincy Machine Co., Woodworking Machinery — Worcester, 
Mass. 

Heald Machine Co., Machine Tools and Grinding Machinery — Worcester, 
Mass. 

Hobbs Mfg. Co., Paper Box Machinery, Special Machine^', Nut Locks 
and Nut Washers — Worcester, Mass. 

68 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



R. E. Kidder, Patterns, Models and Special Machinery — Worcester, Mass. 
Leland Gifford Co., Machine Tools — Worcester, Mass. 

B. G. Luther Co., Woodworking Machinery — Worcester, Mass. 
Matthews Mfg. Co., Sheet Metal Specialties — Worcester, Mass. 
McMahon & Co., Machinists' Tools — Worcester, Mass. 

Morgan Construction Co., Rolling Mill and Wire Drawing Machinery — 
Worcester, Mass. 

Norton Grinding Co., Grinding Machinery — Worcester, Mass. 

Parker Wire Goods Co., Wire Specialties — Worcester, Mass. 

Reed-Prentice Co., Machine Tools — Worcester, Mass. 

A. H. Steele Co., Iron Forgings — Worcester, Mass. 

Stewart Boiler Works, Steel Boilers — Worcester, Mass. 

Stockbridge Machine Co., Crank Shapers — Worcester, Mass. 

J. H. Watson, Automobile Repairs — Worcester, Mass. 

Whitcomb-Blaisdell Machine Tool Co., Planers and Lathes — Worcester. 
Mass. 

J. E. Windle, Cloth Folding and Finishing Machinery — Worcester, Mass. 

Samuel Winslow Skate Mfg. Co., Ice and Roller Skates — Worcester, Mass. 

The Wire Goods Co., Wire Hardware — Worcester, Mass. 

Woodward & Powell Planer Co., Planers — Worcester, Mass. 

Worcester Pressed Steel Co., Pressed Steel Specialties — Worcester, Mass. 

Wyman & Gordon Co., Drop, Steam Hammer, Hydraulic and Steel Forg- 
ings — Worcester, Mass. 

M. S. Wright Co., Vacuum Cleaners and Piano Hardware — Worcester. 
Mass. 

American Optical Co., Optical Goods — Southbridge, Mass. 

Dupaul-Young Optical Co., Optical Goods — Southbridge, Mass. 

Harrington Cutlery Co., Cutlery — Southbridge, Mass. 

Litchfield Shuttle Co., Shuttles — Southbridge, Mass. 

Bath Grinder Co., Grinders — Fitchburg, Mass. 

Blake Pump & Condenser Co., Steam Pumps — Fitchburg, Mass. 

C. H. Cowdrey Machine Works, Special Machinery — Fitchburg, Mass. 
Fitchburg Machine Works, Lathe and Planers — Fitchburg, Mass. 
Fitchburg Steam Engine Co., Steam Engines — Fitchburg, Mass. 
Putnam Machine Co., Railroad Machine Tools — Fitchburg, Mass. 
Simonds Mfg. Co., Saws, Files — Fitchburg, Mass. 

A. D. Waymoth, Irregular Turning Lathes — Fitchburg, Mass. 

Flather & Co., Inc., Machine Tools — Nashua, N. H. 

Baxter D. Whitney, Woodworking Machinery — Winchendon, Mass 

Warren Steam Pump Co., Steam Pumps — Warren, Mass. 

Charles G. Allen Co., Drills — Barre, Mass. 

Leavitt Machine Co., Dexter Valve Reseating Machine — Orange, Mass. 

Lapointe Machine Tool Co., Machine Tools — Hudson, Mass. 

Universal Boring Machine Co., Boring Machines — Hudson, Mass. 

Athol Machine Co., Vises — Athol, Mass. 

The L. S. Starrett Co., Machinists' Tools — Athol, Mass. 

Union Twist Drill Co., Twist Drills — Athol, Mass. 



69 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Jlssociate 

Athol Machine Foundry, Iron Molders — Athol, Mass. 

Armour's Pattern Shop, Job Patternmaking — Worcester, Mass. 

Colvin Foundry. Iron Molders — Worcester, Mass. 

Commonwealth Press, Printing — Worcester, Mass. 

The Davis Press, Printing — Worcester, Mass. 

Denholm & McKay Co., Department Store — Worcester, Mass 

Hatch & Barnes Co., Carpenters' Inside Finish — Worcester, Mass. 

Norton Company, Grinding Wheels — Worcester, Mass. 

Sherman Envelope Co., Envelopes — Worcester, Mass. 

Charles R. Stobbs, Printing — Worcester, Mass. 

Wells Chemical Bronze Works, Brass Molders — Worcester, Mass. 

Whitcomb-Blaisdell Foundry, Iron Molders — Worcester, Mass. 

The Industries of Worcester After Fifty 
Years of City Life 

HON. CHARLES G. WASHBURN, in a sketch on the "History 
of Mechanical Industries,'' prepared when Worcester was celebrat- 
ing its 50th Anniversary as a city, in 1889, furnishes much valuable 
information of the early struggles and successes of the business men and 
manufacturers of three-quarters of a century ago. In this history Mr. 
Washburn says. 

"The history of the mechanical industries of Worcester from 1820 
until 1898 is the history of the growth of a village of 3,000 to a city of up- 
wards of 100,000, an increase from the production of the food and clothing 
necessary for her own inhabitants to an annual product of upwards of 
$40,000,000 scattered through every state in the Union, and to be found 
in almost every civilized country on the face of the globe. 

"It is a matter of surprise that so large a community could develop 
where the water power is so limited. 

"It is related that the late Judge Merrick once said to Samuel Slater 
that Worcester never could become a manufacturing town because of the 
lack of water power, and that Mr. Slater replied: 'Mr. Merrick you may 
live to see the time when Worcester will need all the water of Mill Brook 
to provide the steam for her steam engines.' As Judge Merrick lived until 
1867, this prophecy was pretty literally fulfilled. 

"It is difficult to realize that W. A. Wheeler, who is credited with hav- 
ing had the first steam engine in the State west of Boston, should have 
discarded it in 1825 and used horsepower until 1840, when he put in another 
engine. The late W. T. Merrifield at the same time put in an engine of from 
four to six horsepower. These were probably the first efficient steam en- 
gines in town. 

"The rapid growth of Worcester as a manufacturing city is most 
largely due to the following causes: The introduction of steam power, 

7i 




Reed-Prentice Company 
Worcester, Mass. 

President, George F. Fuller Vice-President and Gen. Mgr.. Albert E. Newton 
Treasurer, George Crompton 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The building of railroads, The facilities afforded to men with small means 
to begin business, The character of the people. 

"The necessity for means of communication with the seaboard was 
recognized by our enterprising people at a very early day. The plan of 
making a navigable waterway to both Boston and Providence was suggested 
as early as 1 796. Work was begun upon the Blackstone Canal in 1822, and 
was completed in 1828 and on October 7th of that year the first canal boat, 
the "Lady Carrington," arrived from Providence and moored in the basin 
of Central Street. The canal was used for twenty years, the last toll having 
been collected in November, 1848. 

"The Boston and Worcester railroad was completed and the first 
train run to Worcester July 6, 1835 and the road was extended to Springfield 
in 1839. 

"The Norwich & Worcester Railroad was first operated between Worces- 
ter and New London, March 9, 1840. 

"The Providence and Worcester Railroad began operations October, 
1847. 

"The Worcester and Nashua Railroad, December 18, 1848, and the 
Boston, Barre & Gardner, September 4, 1871. 

"Prior to 1813 there was no stage or mail route between Worcester and 
Providence and a stage route begun in 1814 was later abandoned, as it did 
not pay, but was resumed in 1823. In 1827 there were 18 different lines of 
stages running from Worcester, and the passengers averaged 100 daily. 

"Without facilities for shipping her products at small cost to distant 
points, Worcester manufactures could never have grown beyond the 
needs of the rural population. In 1812 it cost $10 per ton per 100 miles to 
move freight. To-day a hundred pounds of freight can be carried from 
Worcester to Chicago for no more than it costs to send a trunk across the 
street. 

"The third reason which I have given for the rapid growth of Worces- 
ter as a manufacturing city, is the facilities which have been afforded to 
mechanics to begin business in a small way without incurring the expense 
incident upon the erection and equipment of a shop, and there are few manu- 
facturing enterprises of Worcester that have not at one time or other 
occupied room in buildings erected for rent with power to a number of 
tenants. 

"The first of these buildings, the old Court Mills, erected some time 
prior to 1832, and located at Lincoln Square, was occupied at one time or 
another by Messrs. Coes, manufacturers of wrenches; Ruggles, Nourse & 
Mason, makers of agricultural implements; Thomas E. Daniels, maker of 
planing machines; Samuel Flagg, pioneer maker of machinists' tools in 
Worcester. 

"The Merrifield Buildings, most widely known of all, were built in 
1 835, and rebuilt after the fire of 1 854. In 1 859 these were occupied by over 
50 firms employing from two to eighty hands each. A building for the same 
purpose was erected by Doctor Heywood on Central Street about 1846. 

73 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The stone shop at the Junction, lately occupied by the Knowles Loom 
Works, was erected in 1851 , and first and last has been occupied by a large 
number of tenants. 

"The manufacturing interests of Worcester, almost without exception, 
began in a small way and through careful and intelligent management have, 
some of them, become known the world over. 

"About 1819 a number of young mechanics who had been active in 
reforming the schools and establishing a lyceum and temperance society, 
made an attempt to form a mechanics association. This failed. But in 1841 
a public meeting was held to consider the matter, which resulted in the 
formation of a successful association, and in the completion in 1857 of 
Mechanics Hall, so conspicuous in the history of the city. 

"The object of the Association was 'The moral, intellectual and social 
improvement of its members, the perfection of the mechanics arts, and the 
pecuniary assistance of the needy. ' 

"Another illustration of the public spirit of the mechanics of Worcester 
is found in the fact that among the contributors to the fund to provide a 
suitable location for the Polytechnic Institute were workmen in 20 of the 
then largest shops and factories. 

"A journey to the equator can be taken to-day in less time and with 
less inconvenience than a journey from Boston to Washington when 
John Adams was president. 

"Correspondence can be conducted to-day by wire with San Fran- 
cisco with a smaller expenditure of time than by letter with Boston 
seventy years ago. 

"Another of our beneficent institutions, shared in common with all 
the people of the United States, but which has, in a very large measure 
stimulated our mechanics, is our national patent system, under which 
the individual, in return for the benefit bestowed upon the community, 
can secure to himself, for a limited period, the exclusive right to his inven- 
tions. 

"A large number of patents have been issued to Worcester mechanics, 
and this incentive to discover and adapt to practical uses, new methods and 
new mechanisms has been very potent in keeping our factories at the very 
highest point of efficiency. 

"The wire business was commenced in 1831 by Ichabod Washburn 
and Benjamin Goddard on a small water privilege in Northville, 
where they made card wire and wire for screws. The business was 
in 1835 removed to its present location on Grove Street, and since then has 
grown to its present large proportions, contributing to the support directly 
and indirectly of perhaps one-sixth of the population of Worcester, and 
known the world over. All this has been done with local capital, thrift 
and enterprise. An interesting illustration of what large results may fol- 
low from apparently accidental circumstances, is found in the following 
incident: 

"Sometime during the year 1831, Mr. Washburn, Mr. Goddard and 
General Nathan Heard, made an arrangement with three brothers, named 



74 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Reed, who were manufacturing screws in Providence under a patent they 
owned, to move their business to Worcester. This they did, bringing the 
machinery up from Providence on a canal boat, the journey occupying 
three days. The business was located in the Northville factory of Wash- 
burn & Goddard, where the wire was made. Subsequently, in 1 836 or 1 837, 
the screw business was moved back to Providence, and became the nucleus 
of the Eagle now the American Screw Company. Had this business been 
kept here, it would have been of the greatest value to this city. 

"Isaac Goddard was apprenticed to Elijah Burbank at Quinsigamond 
to learn papermaking. In 1836 he came to Worcester and in company 
with Mr. Howe began to make paper machinery, at the old red mills on 
Green Street. They subsequenty moved to the factory on Union Street 
where the business was conducted under the name of Goddard, Rice & 
Company, and their successors are now widely known as the Rice, Bar- 
ton & Fales Machine Company. 

"In 1840 the late Samuel Davis happened to meet in Boston, William 
Crompton, father of the late George Crompton. Mr. Crompton was look- 
ing for some one to build his loom, and Mr. Davis recommended Phelps 
& Bickford of Worcester, who subsequently arranged to manufacture the 
loom on a royalty. Worcester looms are now known the world over. 

"The existence of a foundry in Worcester as early as 1825 led Samuel 
Flagg to move his machine shop from West Boylston to Worcester in 
1839 to save cartage on his castings. He located in Court Mills as lessee 
to Samuel Davis and made hand and engine lathes. 

"As an indication of the insufficient equipment of a machine shop 
in those days, it may be stated that Mr. Flagg had no planer when he 
commenced business, but did that work by hand, chipping and filing. 
This was the beginning of the manufacture here of machinists' tools, for 
which Worcester has been well and widely known. 

"The brothers Coes, both born in Worcester, invented and patented 
a wrench about 1840, which was the basis of their extensive manufac- 
turing interests in New Worcester. 

"The manufacture of the Daniels planer in Court Mills by Thomas 
Daniels, the inventor, in 1839, has led to the manufacture here of wood 
working machinery. 

"Ethan Allen was attracted to Worcester in 1847, and began the 
manufacture of firearms, which subsequently became an important busi- 
ness, and here invented the first set of machinery ever devised for making 
metallic cartridges. 

"In 1857 the firm of S. C. & S. Winslow ventured to make twenty-five 
pairs of skates in their machine shop in the Merrifield building. This was 
the beginning of the Samuel Winslow Skate Manufacturing Company." 



75 




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.2 fe 

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5 

£ 
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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



No man is born into the world 
whose work is not born with him. 
There is always work, and tools to 
work withal, for those who will; 
and blessed are the horny hands 
of toil. 

— James Russell Lowell 



77 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Thomas Blanchard — His Versatility in 
Invention 

A CARTOON, entitled "Men of Progress," was published in Phila- 
delphia, by Munn and Company in 1863, on which are represented 
the most distinguished American inventors of the 19th century, 
and among them may be found a good picture of Thomas Blanchard. 
of Sutton. No one in that galaxy of geniuses more justly deserved the 
honor. Some of them, such as Morse, McCormick, Howe and Goodyear, 
have made single inventions which have perhaps attracted more public 
notice than any one of Blanchard's, but it may be questioned whether 
another inventor can be named in this country or in Europe, during the 
last century, who has produced so many different labor-saving machines, 
applicable to such a great variety of uses, and which have contributed so 
largely to the common necessities, comforts, and economies of life. 

This language may seem extravagant, but it must be remembered 
that not an armory exists in this country or in Great Britain where guns 
are made, hardly a human being who wears boots or shoes, scarcely a ves- 
sel sailing upon the ocean, not a carpet laid down, but owes tribute to the 
genius of Thomas Blanchard for producing articles cheaper and better. 
The same may be said of carriage wheels, plows, shovels and various articles 
of furniture. Latterly his machines have been applied to carving, to archi- 
tectural design and even to statuary, much to the surprise of artists. In- 
deed, there seems to be no limit to the uses made of Blanchard's inventions, 
and it is impossible at present to enumerate them. One can hardly go 
into a tool shop, a machine shop or a workshop of any kind, wood or iron, 
where motive power is used, in which he will not find more or less of Blan- 
chard's mechanical motions. 

In the "History of the town of Sutton," published nearly 40 years 
ago, much space is devoted to the inventions of Thomas Blanchard, 
who was born in Sutton, June 24, 1 788. His father, Samuel, was a 
farmer, and lived on a poor, remote strip of land, where there was 
absolutely nothing to suggest a mechanical motion. While on the 
farm, Thomas gave little if any promise of the latent powers within 
him. There was nothing in his surroundings to excite them. He was mis- 
placed; schools were remote, and he seldom attended, for he was afflicted 
with a perverse impediment of speech, so that the boys called him "stam- 
mering Tom." His prospects were anything but promising. At length, 
when he arrived at the age of 18 his eldest brother, Stephen, started in 
West Millbury a tack factory, with horse power, and he promoted his 
unfortunate brother to the position of heading them in a vise, with a hand 
hammer, one by one. Once in a mechanic shop his dormant genius began 
to wake up. 

Ere that youth had spent many months heading tacks, one by one, he 
had designed, constructed and put in operation a machine which would 

78 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



cut and head them at one motion twice as fast as the ticking of a watch, 
and better finished than those made by hand. So perfect was it in design 
and construction, it was continued in use more than twenty years. It is 
said to be still in existence, and experts who have seen it, say no essential 
improvement has ever been made upon it. 

His neighbors could not at first be made to believe he originated it; 
they thought he must have stolen the design somewhere; but when they 
found he had hardly been out of the school district, they were constrained 
to give him the credit. 

In Millbury, a few miles distant, and on the Blackstone River, were 
the armory works of Asa Waters, then largely engaged in manufacturing 
firearms for the United States. Mr. Waters was making improvements 
on the English mode of making the gun barrels, which was to weld them 
by hand and then grind them down before a revolving stone. He first 
invented a process of welding them by water power under trip hammers 
in which he succeeded perfectly, patented October 25, 1817. He next 
invented a machine for turning the barrels, so as to leave the metal of uni- 
form thickness around the calibre (patented December 19, 1818), for in 
grinding, while one side would often be left too thick, the other would be 
too thin, and this made them liable to explode. 

He succeeded in turning them so far as they were round, but to turn 
the irregular shape of the butt baffled all his efforts, and so it did the 
efforts of the most ingenius mechanics in the national armories. At length, 
having heard of a young man living on Grass Hill, now West Millbury, as 
having developed some inventive talent, he sent for him to come to his 
armory. When he came he seemed an utter stranger to all present, uncouth, 
diffident, had a stammering tongue, and little was expected of him. He was 
shown the machine and given to understand what was wanted. Glancing 
his eye over the machine, he very soon suggested an additional, very simple, 
but wholly original, cam motion, which, upon being applied, was found to 
relieve the difficulty, and proved a perfect success. 

Mr. Waters was delighted. Turning to Thomas he said, "Well, 
Thomas, I don't know what you won't do next. I should not be surprised 
if you turned a gun-stock," naming that as the most impossible thing in 
mechanics he could think of. Thomas hesitated a moment, then stam- 
mered out, "We-we-well, I-I1I t-t-try that." Whereupon the workmen, 
who had gathered round, burst into a loud guffaw at the absurdity of the 
idea. The germ of the stocking machine lay in that cam motion, and it 
was then and there, as he afterwards said, that the idea of his world-re- 
nowned machine for turning irregular forms first flashed through his mind, 
although it required some months to elaborate and bring it out. 

As soon as he had completed his cam motion at Millbury, he was 
called to Springfield to adjust similar motions in the United States Armory 
there. On a return journey, when passing through Brimfield, solitary and 
alone in his carriage, in deep meditation, he was heard to exclaim with 
great glee, like Archimedes of old, "I've got it! I've got it!" Two men 

79 




5* - 

M 

C «j 
«J O 

£ 



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u 

c 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



who were by the wayside overheard him, and one said to the other " I guess 
that man is crazy. " 

This cam motion was introduced into all the armories in the United 
States, has been in use ever since, and as it saves fully a half dollar on 
every gun, some estimate may be formed of its value to the country. 
Blanchard, however, never realized much, if anything from it. 

He sold out his tack machine for $5,000, a mere bagatelle, considering 
its worth, but a vast fortune to him then. He built a workshop, filled it 
with tools, and kept himself locked in for about two years. At last he 
emerged and brought to the armory of Asa Waters a miniature model of 
his stocking machine, and it operated so well that a full sized working 
machine was decided upon. Blanchard called in the aid of other mechanics, 
and built his first machine in Millbury. In the meantime the fame of it 
had reached Washington, and the war department was desirous of having 
it launched into notice from the national armory at Springfield. 

Blanchard, feeling a just pride in this recognition of his great inven- 
tion, ordered it to be sent there. It was carted by a three-horse team. 
After it had remained there long enough to build a new one, it was carted 
back to Millbury, bought by Mr. Waters, and set up in his armory, where 
it was continued in operation for 25 years. These details are given for the 
reason that for some years Springfield Armory has assumed the credit of 
bringing out, and sometimes of originating this great invention, and in all 
the accounts emanating therefrom, Sutton, Millbury, and Mr. Waters's 
armory are wholly ignored, and their names are not even mentioned; when 
in fact Springfield Armory had no more to do in originating that invention 
than Woolwich, England. That they have made improvements upon it, 
will not be denied. 

Blanchard was called to Springfield Armory with his machine, and 
given the whole charge of stocking the guns. He proceeded to expand and 
extend the principle of his machine, first to letting in the barrel, then the 
mounting, and finally the lock, which the old stockers said could not be 
done by machinery; but he did do it and did it better than the oldest expert. 
After he had mastered the whole job by machinery, he left the armory and 
devoted himself to other projects, with which his mind was teeming. 

His machine was soon brought into requisition in making shoe lasts, 
which were difficult to make, seldom uniform in shape, and quite expensive. 
They are now made by this machine by the million, made perfectly, rights 
and lefts, and at trifling cost. It was next applied to tackle blocks, wheel 
spokes, ox yokes, and so on ad infinitum, from that day to this. 

It will thus be seen that this invention has proved to be far more 
than the invention of a single machine for a single purpose like the revolver, 
the reaper, the sewing machine, etc., and is largely relied upon in the 
building of those and other patented machines. It was really the discovery 
of a new principle in mechanics whereby the machine is made the obedient, 
faithful servant of man to work out his designs after any given model, be 
it round or square, crooked or straight, however irregular, and made to 
reproduce the original shape exactly every time. This perfect uniformity 

a 81 




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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



of Blanchard's work suggested the idea of having all the parts of the guns 
made at the armories perfectly uniform, so as to be interchangeable. 
Hitherto they had been fitted separately, like Swiss watches, and carefully 
lettered or numbered. This was the method in all workshops, even to the 
bolts of a carriage or a common bedstead, and woe to him who misplaced 
one. 

The war department, impressed with the importance of having the 
guns so made that after a battle the broken ones could be readjusted, 
ordered the Springfield armory to make all the parts interchangeable. At 
first the mechanics said it was impossible, especially of the lock. The de- 
partment insisted on the attempt. Finally, after two years' effort, the thing 
was accomplished. Lettering and numbering were abolished; all the 
components, even of the lock, were got out in large numbers and thrown 
together indiscriminately. Thus was inaugurated the "uniformity sys- 
tem" so-called, in the shops — a system which has produced a marked 
advance along the whole line of mechanic arts, and forms an era, the 
greatest, probably, since the introduction of the steam engine. It has 
revolutionized mechanic processes in all workshops; perfected and greatly 
cheapened mechanic products, and driven from use the old system of 
numbering. 

It is not claimed that the whole credit of the "uniformity system" 
should be given to Blanchard. Other machines, especially the milling 
machine, and many skilled mechanics, have contributed largely towards it. 
But to Blanchard belongs the credit of being its forerunner and suggester, 
and the system could not now be carried on a day in the armories and many 
other shops without his motions. 

For this great invention, whose worth to this country and Europe can 
only be computed in millions, Blanchard himself received but a meagre 
compensation. For the first two terms of his patent he was continually 
harassed by infringements and law suits, and even in the few years while 
he was busy in the armory, more than 50 violators had pirated his inven- 
tion and started up works in various parts of the country for making lasts, 
spokes, etc. Combined and repeated efforts were made to break down his 
patent. Eminent counsel were employed, and all Europe was scoured to 
find some evidence of a similar motion. But in no age or country could a 
trace be found of a revolving cutter working to a given model, like Blan- 
chard's. 

In the lower courts, before juries not comprehending mechanics, he 
sometimes lost a case; but in the final appeal at Washington he invariably 
gained his case; so that his claim to originality is now founded upon a 
rock, which naught can move. Beaten in court, the last makers retreated 
to the forest of Maine and there pursued their illicit trade. Blanchard at 
last ferreted them out of their hiding places and they fled over the line 
into Canada. Here they ran their machines fearlessly, made lasts by the 
million and exported them to the United States free of duty. He then 
appealed to Congress, and after much delay got heavy duties imposed on 
their importation and thus effectually stopped the leak. When the second 



^ 




Milton Prince Higgins 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



term of his patent had nearly expired he said he had expended $100,000 
in defending his right and had realized to himself little more than "his 
board and clothes;" that is to say, a fair living. A third term was un- 
precedented on any patent. Blanchard, knowing that great opposition 
would be made to another renewal, thought he would resort to a little 
strategem. He fitted up a machine for turning busts from marble blocks, 
took it to Washington, obtained plaster casts of the heads of Webster, 
Clay, Calhoun and others and exhibited the busts in the rotunda of the 
Capitol. The members were quite astonished when they found that these 
busts were wrought out by a machine and that they were more exactly like 
the original than any human hand could make them. It produced a sensa- 
tion; they all supposed it a new invention; Blanchard said "No, not a new 
invention, but a new application of an old one of mine from which I have 
never realized much and I want the patent renewed." 

A resolution was introduced into the Senate by Webster to renew it 
for a term of years — some members wanted it for life, and it was rushed 
through without delay. Choate, then a member, made the witty remark, 
" that Blanchard had 'turned the heads' of Congress and gained his point." 

Milton Prince Higgins 

Father of the Trade School Movement 

THIS EDITORIAL in the Worcester Gazette at the time of Mr. 
Higgins's death, which occurred in Worcester, March 8, 1912, tells 
accurately and succinctly the leading characteristics of one of 
Worcester's best known mechanics. 

"Only a short time ago we were obliged to record the passing of 
Charles H. Morgan. Now the asterisk of death must be set against the 
name of Milton P. Higgins. It would indeed be hard to select two men 
from the great list of those who have stood for so much in the advancement 
of Worcester's industrial life, to match the two in mention. 

"Worcester will not be alone in lamenting the death of Mr. Higgins. 
In the industrial world and in the educational industrial world he had won a 
fame and esteem not to be circumscribed by the limits of any one commu- 
nity or state. Though the fact was never heralded by him and was in general 
little known, the truth is that in his field of work as a leader in industrial 
education he had won national fame. 

"As a citizen, Worcester owes him an inestimable debt. It is a debt 
too likely to be overlooked by the unthinking and too likely to be lost sight 
of by all in these days of rush and progress in the workaday world. 

"In Mr. Higgins were found combined two great qualities rarely 
discovered linked in the same person. He was a great educator and a 
great business man. He was a theorist and dreamer, man of action and a 
doer of things. 

"His latter sphere was by no means his greatest, but we will first give 
it comment. Daniel Webster said of Hamilton, 'He touched the dead 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



corpse of public credit and it sprang upon its feet.' Mr. Higgins made no 
pretensions as a statesman, but in the industrial world he had a power as 
magical as that attributed to Hamilton. Mr. Higgins could lay his hand 
upon a dead industry and electrify it with life. In his chosen field he could 
indeed make two spears of grass grow where but one had grown before. As 
an industrialist, if he was not a genius, he missed that estate but by a hair's 
breadth. 

"Had he confined his efforts solely to business, he must have been 
accounted one of the city's strong and helpful men. He must have been 
credited as a man who had done much to add to the city's solid and flourish- 
ing industries, and therefore as being a great power in enabling Worcester 
not only to keep its place as an industrial centre, but to win new fame as an 
industrial centre at a time when other cities in the East were losing their 
supremacy to the South and Middle West. He must be remembered as one 
of our great industrial upbuilders. 

"It was in the great field of industrial education, however, that Mr. 
Higgins did his greatest as well as his noblest work. As superintendent of 
the Washburn Shops at the Tech, he established his fame through more than 
a quarter-century of service as a man who had the rare power of turning the 
theory taught in one quarter of the institution into practical results in the 
shop. That fame made him sought to organize similar shops as a comple- 
ment to technical education in other places. The value of his two-score 
years of association with the Polytechnic Institute can hardly be over- 
estimated either with respect to the impetus which he gave that type of 
education, or by virtue of that helpful personality of his which did so much 
to mould the minds and character of the 'boys.' 

"Industrial education was the great project of his soul. It was no 
wonder at all that a man of his training became recognized throughout 
the nation as a leader of thought on that subject and as one whose counsels 
were to be taken and followed implicitly. It is no wonder that he brought 
it about that Worcester should have an independent industrial school. 
He was the virtual creator of that institution and it must remain a monu- 
ment to his wisdom, foresight and love of the city where he was so long a 
respected citizen and where he is sure to be appreciated more and more as 
time permits his good works to be seen in that perspective which will show 
their true greatness of mind and greatness of soul.' 

Mr. Higgins was born Dec. 7, 1842, in Standish, Me. He graduated 
from Dartmouth, in 1868, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. He 
then became a draftsman at the Washburn & Moen Wire Works in Worces- 
ter, under the late Charles Hill Morgan, with whom he was associated 
later for many years at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It was at 
this time that Mr. Higgins was selected by Mr. Morgan and other trustees 
of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute to carry out the unique idea of 
Ichabod Washburn for a shop that should train the students, and at the 
same time be a commercial success. Perhaps only those who have tried 
this can appreciate the magnitude of the success attained by Mr. Higgins 
in his 28 years as superintendent of the Washburn Shops of the Worcester 

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Polytechnic Institute. Ke built up several lines of business there in ma- 
chinery of his own design, such as machine tools, special grinding apparatus, 
and the hydraulic elevator of the direct acting plunger type. The marked 
success of so many of the older graduates of this now well known institute 
is attributable in no small degree to the atmosphere of commercial in- 
dustry and thrift that pervaded the Washburn Shops under Mr. Higgins' 
administration. He was made a trustee of the Institute in 1903, so that 
he had a practically continuous service at "The Tech" covering over 
40 years. 

Mr. Higgins is survived by Mrs. Higgins and four children: Aldus C. 
Higgins, Secretary and Counsel for the Norton Grinding Co.; John W. 
Higgins, Gen. Manager of the Worcester Pressed Steel Co., and Pres- 
ident of the Worcester Branch National Metal Trades Association; Mrs 
Riley, wife of R. Sanford Riley, a director of the Norton Co., and Mrs. L. 
I. Prouty, of Brookline. 



Plunging Elevators 



HYDRAULIC direct acting plunger elevators were first made in 
Worcester. 

John W. Higgins, President and Treasurer of the Worcester 
Pressed Steel Co., and a member of the National Metal Trades Associa- 
tion, was formerly in this business with his father, the late Milton Prince 
Higgins, of Worcester. 

The elder Higgins worked as a draftsman under the late Charles H. 
Morgan (then superintendent of the Washburn & Moen Co., now American 
Steel & Wire Co.), and in 1868 designed the first direct acting hydraulic 
plunger elevator known. 

This fact is attested by old letters in John W. Higgins's possession 
from authorities who knew the state of the art at the time. 

Hydraulic cranes and presses were used before 1868 and the elder 
Higgins adapted this idea of elevator lifts from seeing a hydraulic cleaning 
crane. 

This type of elevator was first built for one-story freight lifts in the 
Washburn & Moen plant on Grove St., and proved so successful that the 
design was developed until finally adapted and built for highspeed passen- 
ger elevators for buildings up to 27 stories. Patents were secured on the 
valve and other mechanisms and the business was developed at the Wash- 
burn Shops of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute until 1896 when this 
department was bought out by a new company (the Plunger Elevator Co.) 
and moved to Greendale, Worcester. This type of elevator was later built 
by other New England concerns, but it received its highest development 
here in Worcester. 

About 1902 the Plunger Elevator Co. was sold to the Otis Elevator 
Co., some of the managers leaving and organizing a competing firm, the 
Standard Plunger Elevator Co., of Jamesville, Worcester. About 1908 
the Otis Elevator Co., moved its plant to Buffalo, where it is now thriving. 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



George Ira Alden — Inventor, Educator 

THE WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE is indebted 
for much of its admirable equipment to the inventive genius of 
George Ira Alden. It was while he was a teacher at the "Worcester 
County Free Institute of Industrial Science," now Worcester Polytechnic 
Institute, that the mechanical engineering department developed so rapidly 
under his leadership. 

Mr. Alden is a native of Templeton, having been born in that 
town April 22, 1843. His early education was obtained in the district 
and high schools. He then learned a trade and for some years 
worked in the shop improving his spare time in study, thus fitting himself 
for the Lawrence Scientific School at Cambridge, from which school he was 
graduated in 1868. 

For several months after his graduation he acted as assistant to Pro- 
fessor Winlock at Harvard College Observatory. He came to Worcester 
in 1869 to become a teacher at the Tech and was identified with the insti- 
tution from the beginning. For 27 years he was at the head of the mechani- 
cal engineering department. He made the plans for building and equipping 
the engineering, power and hydraulic laboratories which were built by the 
Institute in 1895. He was twice made acting principal of the Institute and 
had an active and leading part in the first quarter century of its history. 

During the year 1889, Mr. Alden spent several months in Europe, 
visiting the Paris Exposition and also the technical and other schools in 
England and Germany. In 1891 he received the degree of Master of 
Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University. 

Professor Alden severed his connection with the Polytechnic Institute 
in July, 1896, and assisted in organizing the Plunger Elevator Company. 
He is president of the Norton Company and Norton Grinding Company, 
besides holding many other high honorary offices in Worcester, where he 
is regarded as one of its most respected citizens. Naturally, he is keenly 
interested in educational matters, particularly on trade lines, to assist 
young men and women to be good citizens. 

Mr. Alden is president of the Employers Association of Worcester 
County. 



The Crompton Loom 



THE ORIGINAL CROMPTON LOOM was not invented by George 
Crompton, but by his father, William Crompton. It was made 
about 1836 and patented in this country in 1837. 
William Crompton's first loom was a cotton loom. It was the first 
power loom on which fancy cloth could be woven, that is, it is the first 
power loom, and it is believed, the first machine which used what is now 
known as a pattern chain — a chain made up of strips of wood, or small bars 
of metal, on which in the case of wood were inserted pegs, or in the case of 
metal bars round rollers or balls as they are somewhat unappropriately 

90 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



called. A pattern can be made up on this chain which, when placed upon 
the loom, will cause the proper harnesses, which control the lateral threads 
of the cloth, to rise and fall at the proper time in order to effect the desired 
weave. 

Before this loom was invented the harnesses were controlled, as 
indeed they are now sometimes controlled, by cams. The advantage of 
the pattern chain over the cam lies in the fact that it can be changed at 
will without much trouble, and makes it possible to weave a much more 
complicated pattern than can be woven by cams. 

The original Crompton loom was, as has been said, a cotton loom. 
In 1840, at the request of Samuel Lawrence, then treasurer of the Middle- 
sex Mills at Lowell, William Crompton, the grandfather of George Cromp- 
ton, of Worcester, altered this loom over into a woolen loom in order that 
they might be able to imitate a complicated pattern originally manufac- 
tured in Sedan, France. He successfully changed these looms, and during 
that year, for the first time, a piece of fancy cassimere was woven by power 
at the Middlesex Mills. Mr. Crompton has a piece of this cloth in his 
office. 

In a letter written in 1874 to George Crompton (father of the present 
George Crompton, treasurer of the Reed-Prentice Co.), Samuel Lawrence 
said, "Not a yard of fancy woolens had ever been woven by power loom 
in any country until done by your father at the Middlesex Mills in Lowell in 
1840." The Middlesex Mills made a great deal of money by being the 
first mill to have these fancy looms and declared very large dividends. The 
looms consequently became very popular and William Crompton made ar- 
rangements with Phelps & Bickford, of Worcester, to manufacture them 
under a royalty. 

After the patent ran out, William's son, George, obtained a renewal of 
it and began in the Merrifield Buildings, in Worcester, in 1851, the manu- 
facture of looms himself, having as a partner Merrill E. Furbush. 

A few years later, Mr. Furbush went to Philadelphia and George 
Crompton continued the manufacture of looms in Worcester. The Cromp- 
ton Loom Works was thus the original fancy loom works probably of the 
whole world 

All fancy power looms use the chain invented by William Crompton, 
and thus in a sense all fancy power looms are Crompton looms, though 
of course great improvements and changes have taken place in the last 
75 years. 

Improvements were made from the very first in the Crompton loom, 
but no improvement before or since has equalled that made by George 
Crompton in 1857. In that year Mr. Crompton brought out his "New 
Broad High Speed Loom." Before this the looms were narrow, that is, 
of about 48 inches reed space, and they ran at the rate of about 45 picks 
per minute. The new loom, nearly double in width, ran at about 85 picks 
per minute, hence the production was nearly quadrupled. 

Since the early days of the company, when the loom business was 
confined principally to a few types of looms, it has gone to manufacturing 

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every type of loom for weaving, so that it is not too much to claim that for 
fancy weaving machinery this company is the largest concern in the 
world, making practically a loom for every type of fabric that is woven. 

It is impossible to state the total product for a year. This is an 
unknown quantity, for the reason that the company makes looms for 
woolen, cotton, silk, dress goods, velvets, plushes, tire duck, cotton duck, 
ribbons, tapes and every conceivable kind of a fabric, and no two years are 
ever alike; one year the demand may be running very heavy on woolen, 
and lighter in the other departments, and the next year will change in 
some way, according to the condition of trade or fashion, etc. It is the 
great variety that the company has to depend upon. It makes everything 
from a plain cotton loom to box looms for woolen felts that are 480" reed 
space, and also some heavy cotton felt looms that weigh over 20 tons to a 
loom, thus covering a very large variety. 

The foundation of this great business was laid by Messrs. George 
Crompton and Lucius J. Knowles in the early 50s, the former having 
located in Worcester in 1851, in copartnership with Merrill A. Furbush 
for the manufacture of looms under the renewal of a patent granted his 
father in 1837; and the latter, having been granted his first loom patent 
in 1856, entered into copartnership with his brother, Francis B. Knowles, 
in the town of Warren, removing later to Worcester. 

The constantly increasing demand for textile fabrics of every variety 
in every line of commerce and of trade, and the consequent extension of 
the textile throughout the entire country, have contributed very mate- 
rially for a rapidly increasing demand for weaving machinery to the extent 
that the growth of the loom-building industry has been truly phenomenal, 
especially when it is considered that it was not until the year 1840 that 
the first fancy woolen cassimeres were woven by power in this country, 
if not in the world, this being accomplished on the Crompton loom in the 
Middlesex Mills in Lowell. 

In 1859 the partnership of Furbush & Crompton was dissolved, and 
Mr. Crompton continued in business alone until his death, in 1886, rapidly 
developing it from its small beginning in the old "Red Mill" on Green 
Street. 

From 1866 to 1879 the firm of L. J. Knowles & Brother, the name 
given to the copartnership existing between L. J. Knowles and Francis B. 
Knowles, was located at Allen Court, when its quarters became so much 
outgrown that it was necessary to remove the business to the "Junction 
Shop," so-called, on Jackson Street, where it remained until its continued 
expansion compelled another change. Upon the death of Mr. Crompton, 
in 1886, his business was incorporated under the name of Crompton Loom 
Works, with his widow, Mrs. M. C. Crompton, as its president, she being 
succeeded at her death, in 1895, by her eldest son, Charles Crompton. 

L. J. Knowles died in 1884, and the following year the business was 
incorporated under the name of the Knowles Loom Works, with Francis 
B. Knowles as its president, and upon his death, in 1890, C.Henry Hutchins 
was elected as his successor to the presidency. 



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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



During the many years of the active history of these two partnerships 
and corporations as independent industries, many valuable alterations and 
additions were naturally made to the original machines which were the 
foundations of the business at the beginning. 

Improvements have not been confined to any special kind of loom, but 
to every department of fancy weaving, to the end that looms are at present 
constructed at these works to weave woolen and worsted goods from the 
heaviest felts to the lightest of dress fabrics; in cotton from the heaviest 
duck for sail cloths to the most delicate and flimsy material for ladies' 
wear; in carpets from the most elegant Axminsters and Wiltons woven by 
power to the most ordinary carpet made from rags, and from the art 
square to cover a whole room to a mat for the door; and in silk goods from 
the widest for dresses to the narrowest for ribbons. Looms are also made 
to weave iron wire netting, paper matting, glass cloths for ornamental 
purposes, horsehair for furniture covering and for every material capable 
of being woven. 

Previous to the death of L. J. Knowles, negotiations were entered 
into for the Knowles "Open-Shed Fancy Loom" into the European market, 
and arrangements were completed with Messrs. Hutchinson, Hollingworth 
& Company, of Dobcross, England, large builders of machinery, whereby 
they should build this loom. The wisdom of this move is evidenced by the 
fact that over 15,000 woolen and worsted looms built upon this principle 
have been introduced into the leading mills of England and the continent. 

In 1893 the company acquired the business of the George W. Stafford 
Mfg. Company, of Providence, since which time it has been carried on as 
an independent branch. 

In 1897 the consolidation took place of these two great establishments, 
with a combined capitalization of $3,000,000, under the name of the 
Crompton & Knowles Loom Works, a most important event not only in 
the history of the two corporations, but in the manufacturing and financial 
life of the city as well. 

Norton Company — Pioneers in Emery Wheel 
Work in the World 

THE FOUNDING of the Norton Grinding Wheel business dates 
back to about 1873, when the first vitrified emery wheel was made 
in the pottery of F. B. Norton, then located on Water Street in 
Worcester. The early wheels were experimental, and it was not until 1879 
that F. B. Norton started to manufacture them commercially in connection 
with his pottery business. 

June 20th, 1885, soon after Mr. Norton's death, the grinding wheel 
business was incorporated as the Norton Emery Wheel Company. 

In 1906 the name of the organization was changed from Norton 
Emery Wheel Co. to Norton Company. The present officials are: George 
I. Alden, president; Charles L. Allen, treasurer and general manager; 

94 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Aldus C. Higgins, secretary and general counsel; George N. Jeppson, 
works manager. 

Norton Company has shown remarkable growth since its incorporation 
in 1885, and for this growth the spirit of scientific research has been largely 
responsible. Long before artificial abrasives had attained their present 
standing, the Norton Company had foreseen that natural minerals, such as 
corundum and emery, were not wholly successful as abrasives, due to their 
lack of uniformity. Then, too, none of the natural abrasives were wholly 
successful upon steel and the rough alloys which the steel plants were 
beginning to produce. In the search for a good artificial abrasive the 
officials of the company found a crude artificial corundum, then being 
made in a small experimental laboratory in New Jersey, and bought the 
patent rights to this product now known as alundum. 

The period from 1901 to 1906 was spent in the difficult task of making 
alundum a commercial possibility. Thousands of experiments were 
required to overcome the many difficulties and obstacles. In 1906 alun- 
dum completely supplanted emery in the manufacture of Norton grinding 
wheels, and from that time on the Norton product increased rapidly in 
volume and obtained world-wide recognition. 

Research work continued unceasingly, as exemplified in 1910 when 
the Norton Company began the manufacture of crystolon, a perfected 
carbide of silicon, for use upon materials of low tensile strength. 

The company has been active in developing other products in which 
abrasive materials formed an important part. Perhaps the most inter- 
esting of these is the Norton alundum and crystolon refractories and 
laboratory ware. Due to their peculiar properties, alundum and crystolon 
are particularly adapted to this line of work, and these refractories are in 
many instances replacing such expensive materials as platinum. 

Norton Company is well known because of certain features, such as 
its Health and Sanitation Department and its Safety Engineering work. 
The work of the Norton Hospital has been described at length in many 
publications. In 1912 Norton Company was awarded the Scientific 
American gold medal for the development of safety features in the grinding 
field. 

Norton Grinding Company — Made 
Grinding an Art 

THE MACHINE BUSINESS conducted by the Norton Emery 
Wheel Co., in conjunction with the grinding wheel business, assumed 
such proportions that in 1900 it was deemed necessary to establish 
an independent enterprise for manufacturing grinding machinery. 

The Norton Grinding Company was incorporated Feb. 27, 1900. 
With the organization of the new company came the introduction of 
Norton machines for cylindrical grinding, the invention of Chas. H. 
Norton, who at that time first became identified with the manufacture of 
Norton products. 

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The present officials and directors of Norton Grinding Company are: 
Geo. I. Alden, president and general manager; Chas. L. Allen, treasurer; 
Aldus C. Higgins, secretary and general counsel; John Jeppson, Geo. N. 
Jeppson, R. Sanford Riley. 

The progress of Norton Grinding Company since its incorporation has 
been marked by some notable developments. 

Since 1900 the influence of Norton Grinding Company, through the 
medium of grinding, has reduced the cost of production of such cylindrical 
work as requires any degree of accuracy or finish from 25 to 50 %. It has 
improved grinding methods and machinery, so that to-day it costs less to 
turn and grind than it formerly did to turn alone — this in contrast to the 
period previous to 1900 when it cost more to grind than to turn and file. 

Norton Grinding Company was the first to build a grinding machine 
which would remove as much as three cubic inches per minute of steel or 
chilled iron. Previous to the introduction of Norton cylindrical grinding 
machine, there was no such thing as grinding pieces 2 to 6" long without 
traversing the wheel; consequently, there was no recognition of this method 
of obtaining a high rate of production with a grinding wheel. 

It was the first to discover that perfectly round or perfectly straight 
work could be ground on rigid, steady rests regardless of contour of work 
before grinding. In fact, Norton Grinding Company was the first to 
evolve a system of rigid steady rests and a system of grinding to utilize 
that discovery. 

The first machine for forming cams from the solid stock without 
milling or other tool work was developed by the Norton Grinding Com- 
pany, as was the first fully automatic cylindrical grinding machine for 
chuck work. 

It was the first to build a machine to grind the entire pin and fillet 
on crankshafts simultaneously, with a wheel face the entire length of the 
pin. 

Previous to the development of the Norton surface grinding machine, 
in 1913, there was no such thing as grinding perfectly flat surfaces. This 
is accomplished by the Norton Grinding Company in a machine using a 
wheel as wide as the work and without cross feeding, as distinct from the 
method depending upon a narrow wheel slowly feeding across the surface. 

One of Norton Grinding Company's most recent developments is a 
roll grinding machine weighing in excess of 50 tons to grind large rolls 
used in the steel plate industry. Development of such huge machines has 
been made possible by Norton Grinding Company by applying the truths 
and possibilities of grinding, and daring to make the large outlay which 
was necessary to prove the value of these large machines. 

It was the first to create a practical, simple machine for indicating 
errors in running balance by which an ordinary workman could secure 
dynamic balance without the use of mathematics. 

It developed the pendulameter for magnifying errors of parallelism 
in the ways of such machines as planers and grinding machines. The 

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pendulameter magnifies such errors 500 times, enabling machine builders 
to obtain a high degree of accuracy. 

Worcester's Biggest Industry — Wire 

WHAT IS NOW the American Steel & Wire Co. unquestionably is 
one of the pioneers in wire making. But who invented the pro- 
cess? there's the rub. All efforts on the part of those responsible 
for inflicting this volume on a long-suffering public have been unavailing in 
the matter of discovering the discoverer. It might have been the Versatile 
Melchisedec, or the Mariner Noah, or the aged Methuselah, or Vulcan 
himself. Anyhow, the secret originated in the fertile brain of some genius 
in the Dark Ages and we are compelled to publish the accompanying 
correspondence to give the public the full idea that we endeavored to 
unearth the mystery and that a friend named Warren of the American 
Steel & Wire Co., with native art and humor, came to the rescue with a 
characteristic reply in response to desire for information: This is the 
correspondence : 

February 13. 1914. 

Mr. J. B. Moss, 

American Steel & Wire Co., 
Worcester, Mass. 

Dear Sir: — 

In the absence, I understand, of Mr. C. S. Marshall, will you be kind 
enough to give us some information in regard to who was the inventor of 
the wire drawing process, his full name and where he first worked. 

I am gathering some information about Worcester industries in 
preparation for the Annual Convention of the National Metal Trades 
Association to be held in The Bancroft next April. 

What part did Mr. Washburn, Mr. Moen or any others connected 
with the firm play in regard to the formation of the American Steel & 
Wire Co.? How many employees do you have on your payroll in the three 
mills in Worcester during good times, day and night shifts? 

Has it ever been computed how many miles of wire and cable of all 
kinds can be turned out in the mills in a year, operated at full blast? 

Any information you can give that will be of interest to manufacturers 
will be appreciated. 

Also please state the approximate value of the buildings and land at 
your plants. 

Thanking you in anticipation, I am, 

Yours very truly, 

DONALD TULLOCH. 

Secretary. 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



March 5, 1914. 
Mr. Donald Tulloch, Secretary, 

National Metal Trades Association, 
44 Front St., Room 36, 
Worcester, Mass. 

Dear Sir: — 

We are sending you herewith, by messenger, a memorandum compiled 
by Mr. Warren regarding information requested in your letter of February 
13th. You will note this memorandum does not mention anything regard- 
ing value of land and buildings. The assessors of the City of Worcester use 
as a value of land, buildings, machinery and personal the sum of approxi- 
mately $5,000,000 on which our tax assessments are based and we would 
consider this a fair valuation. 

Yours truly, 

C. J. MOSS, 

Assistant Manager. 
WAB-EMB 

Worcester, Mass., Feb. 27, 1914. 
Mr. J. B. Moss, 

Assistant Manager. 
Dear Sir: — 

Replying to the request for historic data concerning the Wire Industry, 
dated the 13th inst., and addressed to you by Mr. Donald Tulloch, Secre- 
tary, Worcester branch, National Metal Trades Association. 

The following statement, the substance of which is already more or 
less familiar to you, I would submit as partially covering the points raised 
by Mr. Tulloch. 

The first question, asking "information in regard to who was the 
inventor of the wire drawing process, his full name, and where he first 
worked," is a very natural question for any one to ask, as one might ask 
"who invented the sewing machine." In the latter case, it is easy to 
give a definite and satisfying reply. When, however, we attempt to answer 
the same question as applied to wire drawing, we suddenly find ourselves in 
deep water. 

At first, we try to touch bottom with a pole. We go back to the 
beginning of wire drawing in Worcester (1831), and earlier, about (1820), 
in Spencer; still earlier (1816) at the Falls of Schuylkill, Pa. The pole 
is too short. Then we begin to heave the lead. Presently, we have bottom. 
Upon examining the lead, we find the date to be 1780; the place, Birming- 
ham, England; and the operation is the drawing of wire by means of a horse 
turning a capstan. The interest deepens. Heave the lead again to make 
sure. Slightly deeper this time. Date, 1745; place, London, England; 
wire being drawn by hand. The next two or three throws develop very 
little change. Then there is brought up the date 1666; the place is Lynn, 
Massachusetts, and there is a name, Nathaniel Robbinson, "wyer drawer." 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Back again to England. Date, 1570; place, Tintern, in Monmouthshire; 
a water driven wire factory, established here by Englishmen. Preceding 
this, it is recorded that in I 565, Queen Elizabeth induced certain Germans 
to establish a wire factory at Holywell in Wales 

It is clear that the Germans must previously have been somewhat 
skilled in wire manufacture, so we continue sounding. The lead presently 
brings up the date 1350, and the information that about the middle of the 
fourteenth century, wire was being made in Nurnberg, in Bavaria, and in 
Altena, in Westphalia. 

Surely the bottom has now been reached. A few more throws and 
the search is over, when — away goes the lead, — down, down, down, reeling 
off the generations with the same unconcern exhibited by a Twentieth 
Century Limited in gliding swiftly past country towns of the middle west 
When the lead ceases pulling on the line, we haul it up, wondering what 
record it will reveal. This time, it brings up a piece of wire, together with 
the record that the wire was made by artisans of Nineveh, about the year 
800 B. C. We have jumped a gap of more than two thousand years. In 
the previous soundings, the lead, instead of reaching the bottom, had 
merely found lodgment on some of the ledges or high places nearer the 
surface. But have we even yet reached the beginning of wire manufacture? 

Continuing to heave the lead, we are further rewarded by having it 
take another drop, rushing downwards across a second wide gap covering 
several centuries before finally reaching bottom. The date this time is 
indistinct, but under a glass it appears to be I 500 B. C. There also adheres 
to the bottom of the lead, a scrap of Hebrew manuscript which proves to be 
a portion of the 39th chapter of Exodus, from which we learn that the 
Israelites under Moses, wandering in the wilderness of Sinai, in search of 
the Promised Land, included in their working equipment, facilities for 
making wire. 

Now we are appreciably nearer to the dawn of civilization, and re- 
peated casting of our sounding lead fails to reveal any earlier trace of the 
manufacture of wire. 

Peering into the dim and misty past in our eagerness for details, we ob- 
tain a glimpse here and there, of a man working at a rude forge in which a 
lump of metal is being slowly heated. Taking it from the fire to an anvil, 
he hammers the piece of soft metal flat and very thin, working over it until 
both surfaces are quite smooth. Then, with hammer and chisel, he skill- 
fully cuts the thin sheet of metal into narrow strips. By means of further 
hammering, these strips are elongated and rounded, and in the finished 
product we recognize Wire in its earliest known form, made by the earliest 
known process. 

Perhaps it will be as well if we do not spend much time trying to 
ascertain the full name of the inventor and the place where he first worked. 

Briefly, the art of wire drawing is not a modern invention. When, in 
the year 1831, Ichabod Washburn and Benjamin Goddard began to make 
iron wire in their little factory at Northville, about two miles from Worces- 
ter City Hall, their product could not be classed as a novelty. Due credit 




■w 2 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



should be accorded them, however, for the keenness of foresight and 
enterprise which led them to engage in an industry which, surpassed by 
none, has since developed to an extent nothing short of marvelous. 

Although neither of these typical sons of New England invented wire- 
drawing, they, with their chosen associates and immediate successors, 
played leading parts in the subsequent phenomenal growth of wire man- 
ufacture in America. A consideration, however brief, of the many and 
various epoch-making steps in that evolution would render this paper 
burdensome and less suited to its present purpose. 

The negotiations leading to the purchase of the Washburn & Moen 
properties and business by the American Steel & Wire Company, in the 
year 1899, were conducted on the part of the Washburn & Moen interests, 
by Messrs William E. Rice, President, and Philip W. Moen, General 
Manager. Mr. Moen was at the time of the transfer, elected a Vice-Presi- 
dent of the American Steel & Wire Company. 

During the fifteen years which have elapsed since the consolidation, 
many new uses for wire have helped to swell the naturally increasing 
demand for the products of this industry. 

The American Steel & Wire Company, through the broad policy of an 
ably efficient and alert management, aided by an army of skilled and loyal 
workers, has kept ever in the front rank with respect to the development of 
new lines of products and to improvements in manufacturing and business 
practice. 

Some idea of the volume of the local business may be obtained from 
the fact that under normal conditions, the employees in the three Worcester 
plants of the American Steel & Wire Company number approximately 
six thousand, varying two hundred or three hundred above or below this 
figure. Also, the maximum yearly output of the Worcester plants, based 
on the actual record for one busy month, is upwards of two hundred 
thousand tons. 

Yours truly, 

A. G. WARREN. 
AGW-S 

Another authority, Harry W. Goddard of the Spencer Wire Company, 
informs us that according to history the first fine wire in the United States 
was drawn in Spencer, 12 miles from Worcester, about 1812, by Windsor 
Hatch and Charles Watson. This was drawn by hand from two tubs in 
the kitchen of a farm house. In 1820 there was a small industry in Spencer 
conducted by Elliot Prouty and his brother, Russell Prouty. Eli Hatch 
was also drawing wire in Spencer in 1 830. 

In 1831 Ichabod Washburn started wire drawing in Worcester, from 
which has developed the biggest mills for the manufacture of wire, belong- 
ing to the American Steel & Wire Company, in the world. 

Nothing definite is known as to who first planned the present scheme 
of wire drawing. Wire is mentioned in the Bible and it has always, as 
far as anybody knows, been drawn through a hole in a plate, just the same 

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as it is to-day. Of course details have greatly improved but the principle 
is just the same. 

The last statistics in 1910 indicating how much wire was manufac- 
tured in the United States says it amounted to 2,514,000 tons, the greater 
bulk of which was manufactured in Worcester. 



Worcester — Pioneer in Envelope Making 

THE FIRST successful envelope-folding machine in the United 
States was invented in 1853 by a Worcester physician, Dr. Russell 
L. Hawes, who lived on Salisbury Street in the house now owned 
by Mrs. Charles Baker. He was the founder of the present W. H. Hill 
Envelope Company Division of the United States Envelope Company. 
His machine was a crude affair and did not attempt to gum the sealing 
flap of the envelope, this operation being done by hand before the envelopes 
were fed into the machine. The important point of this invention was the 
self-feeding device; the blanks having been sealed were fed into the machine 
in bunches of about 500. Gum was applied on the under side of the picker, 
which descended on the pile of blanks; the top blank, adhering to the picker, 
was lifted from the pile and was taken by a carriage to a point over the 
folding box, where a plunger the size of the envelope forced the blank down 
to the bottom of the folding box; here two wings folded over the side flaps, 
the gum which had adhered to the blanks now served a second purpose of 
sticking the envelopes. This same principle is used on the modern high- 
speed envelope machines. 

Dr. Hawes's machine made about 13,000 envelopes in a day of 10 
hours and three girls operated two machines. The product of one girl 
to-day is frequently as high as 70,000 per day on one machine. 

The next Worcester man to effect a valuable improvement in envelope 
making was James G. Arnold, when in 1858 he devised a machine for cut- 
ting the envelope blanks from a roll of paper and gumming and folding 
the blanks at one operation. The important feature of this machine was 
the drying chain. The gum on the seal flaps had been applied by hand 
previously. By Arnold's device, after the envelopes had been folded they 
were deposited in a drying chain or endless belt, which was fitted with 
fingers to keep the envelopes apart until the gum on the sealed flaps was 
dry. 

David Whitcomb financed this machine and in this way the Whit- 
combs became interested in the envelope industry. The mechanical genius 
of Henry D. Swift had been recognized by Mr. Arnold, and he made over- 
tures to him to enter the employ of the Bay State Envelope Company, 
established in 1864 by G. Henry Whitcomb. Mr. Swift could not see his 
way clear at that time to make a change in his trade as a cabinet-maker, 
and his brother, D. Wheeler Swift, who was then working at South Ded- 
ham, was secured in his place. About a year was spent in trying to make 
the Arnold machine run satisfactorily, but without success. Trade was 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



developing and other inventors were making progress with other machines, 
among them George M. Reay, of New York. The Bay State Envelope 
Company bought some of these machines and Abram A Rheutan, who 
was for many years connected with the W. H. Hill Envelope Company 
as the general superintendent, came to Worcester for the purpose of in- 
stalling these Reay machines. 

The Bay State Envelope Company was reorganized as G. Henry 
Whitcomb & Company, with a factory in Bigelow Court, in 1866, and five 
years later the Swift Brothers invented their first envelope folding machine. 
This machine was known as the Swift round-table machine and had a 
product of about 35,000 envelopes per day. It simply folded the envelope, 
but at the same time they invented another machine to gum the sealed 
flaps, and these two machines together could at that time produce envelopes 
probably as cheaply as any in the world. 

In 1876 the Swifts invented their first self-gumming machine. This 
machine by one operation turned out a completed product of 35,000 en- 
velopes per day of 10 hours. One girl could run two of these machines 
making 70,000 a day, the product being registered by means of a clock. 
These machines were the only ones then in existence having a registry 
device. 

In 1884 Messrs. D. Wheeler Swift, Henry D. Swift, John S. Brigham, 
and James Logan severed their connection with the Whitcomb Envelope 
Co., and formed the Logan, Swift & Brigham Envelope Company, which 
was incorporated in February of that year and which constitutes that 
division of the United States Envelope Company to-day. Practically all 
the envelope-folding machines in use in the Logan, Swift & Brigham Co. 
Division, the largest given up solely to the manufacture of envelopes in 
the world, are the product of the inventive minds of D. Wheeler and Henry 
D. Swift. These two brothers, with their record of five distinct and sepa- 
rate envelope-folding machines, have probably done more than any two 
men in the world in the development of this industry. There are now six 
envelope factories in Worcester, producing from 10 to 15 million envelopes 
daily. 

Another machine which has been recognized as one of the best and 
most rapid producers is that designed by John A. Sherman. This machine 
represents the latest and best developments in the line of automatic gum- 
ming, folding, drying and counting envelope machines. It is the result 
of 30 years' experience by the designer of it in the developing and operating 
of automatic envelope machines. He is president and manager of the 
Sherman Envelope Co., and the various features of this machine have 
been carefully worked out to meet the actual conditions of practical en- 
velope manufacture. This machine can turnout I 50 envelopes per minute, 
is said to be the most rapid in existence and was originally designed 1 5 
years ago, by Mr. Sherman, being perfected as opportunity showed its 
possibilities. 



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The H. & R. Dependable Firearms 

THE LATEST addition to the already extensive line of firearms 
manufactured by the Harrington & Richardson Arms Company is 
the self-loading or automatic pistol. 

After a thorough investigation and consideration of the merits of both 
American and European automatic pistols, and although holding United 
States patents in its own name, arrangements were made with Messrs. 
Webley & Scott, Ltd., the leading British arms manufacturers, for the 
exclusive American rights to manufacture under their patents, with the 
privilege of selling throughout the world. 

The points in which the new pistol excels are simplicity of construc- 
tion, strength and reliability of mechanism, light weight and compactness. 
A separate pressure on the trigger is required for each shot, and the makers 
prefer to style this pistol "self-loading" rather than "automatic" to correct 
the erroneous idea that an automatic weapon fires itself and therefore is 
not under control of the shooter. 

A positive safety, locking the firing mechanism, is provided for con- 
venient operation by the thumb of the right hand. 

It is claimed that this pistol has fewer parts than any other auto- 
matic pistol on the market. Coil or spiral springs throughout, reduce 
liability of breakage to a minimum. 

The pistol can be dismounted and assembled for cleaning or oiling 
almost instantly and without the use of any tool. 

The Harrington & Richardson Arms Co. was established in 1871 and 
incorporated in 1888. 



Loring Coes — Inventor 



LORING COES, inventor of the monkey wrench, died in Worcester, 
July 13, 1906. He was 94 years old and known as one of the most 
remarkable manufacturers of the East. His work in making Wor- 
cester famous as a manufacturing centre was contemporaneous with Icha- 
bod Washburn, Crompton, and William T. Merrifield. He was born in 
New Worcester, April 22, 1812. 

Loring, like many other boys, did chores on his father's farm and 
at 13 years was apprenticed to learn the carpenter's trade. After serving his 
time he engaged in patternmaking and general woodworking, and then 
with a younger brother, Aury G. Coes, formed a company and started the 
manufacture of woolen mill machinery at the old Court Mill at Lincoln 
Square. Later the plant was burned and the brothers took positions as 
patternmakers in Springfield, in Laurin Trask's foundry. While at work 
there Mr. Coes invented the monkey wrench. In 1840 they returned to 
Worcester and began the manufacture of wrenches under the firm name of 
L. & A. G. Coes, and afterwards began the manufacture of machine knives. 

He invented much of the machinery in his shop. 

109 




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The Coes Wrench Company is recognized as the only plant in the 
United States where grinding is carried out to mathematical accuracy, 
and where instruments of precision are used in the manufacture of knife 
work. The shop has the finest hardening facilities in New England. The 
firm now conducted by Frank L. Coes has been in the wrench business for 
three-quarters of a century. 

Charles Hill Morgan — Inventor, Engineer 

CHARLES HILL MORGAN, until his death, two years ago, presi- 
dent of the Morgan Construction Company, manufacturers of rolling 
mill and wire drawing machinery, and the Morgan Spring Company, 
makers of fine steel springs, was an eminent mechanical engineer. He was 
prominent in the development of the wire industry and processes for rolling 
steel into the various commercial shapes. Almost without an exception 
the larger steel and wire mills of this country had their works machinery 
invented or designed by him. 

He was a direct descendant of Miles Morgan, a native of Wales, who 
came to this country in 1836. His mother was a daughter of Dr. Noah 
Rich and a woman of superior ability and force of character. 

Mr. Morgan was born in Rochester, New York, January 8, 1831, but 
his parents soon after moved to Massachusetts and settled in Clinton. 
His early education was received in the common schools of that day and 
at the Lancaster Academy. 

At the age of 15 he began to learn his trade in the machine shop of 
his uncle, and soon developed a love for mechanical drawing. In 1852, 
when 21 years old, he was put in charge of the Clinton Mills dyehouse. 
Here he devoted himself to the study of chemistry, and was able to fill his 
new position with entire satisfaction and at the same time gain valuable 
experience in the management of men. For a time Mr. Morgan was drafts- 
man for the Lawrence Machine Company and for Erastus B. Bigelow. 
While with the Lawrence Machine Company he was sent to Worcester to 
look after the now famous Merrifield engine on Union Street, which was 
built by that company and was at that time being erected. 

In 1860 he joined his brother in a manufacturing enterprise in Phila- 
delphia, but remained there only a short time. Returning to Worcester 
in 1864, he became the general superintendent of the Washburn & Moen 
Wire Works, a position he held for over 23 years, and was one of the 
directors of that company for over I 1 years. While with the Washburn 
& Moen Manufacturing Company, Mr. Morgan built the first hydraulic 
elevator introduced into New England. 

Not only did he take a leading part in the wire industry of America, 
but as a trustee of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute his inventive 
genius and business ability were applied in making the machine shop 
connected with that institution a place for thorough instruction and 
practice of mechanical engineers. 




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Among the engineering societies with which he was identified are 
the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Institute of 
Mining Engineers, and British Iron and Steel Institute. 

William T. Merrineld — Carpenter and 
Promoter of Industries 

WILLIAM T. MERRIFIELD was born in Worcester in 1807. 
He served an apprenticeship of six years to the carpenter's trade, 
beginning when he was 1 5 years old. Prior to that, he worked on 
the farm. In three years he was entrusted with work. 

He was a farmer boy with an idea of making Worcester a mechanical 
centre. He made, in embryo, a splendid combination — a farmer and a 
mechanic. He first began business in 1835 using a horse for power for 
five years when he put in an engine and added to his buildings. 

He was interested in mechanical industries. For nearly 1 5 years his 
buildings were a hive of industry, until the big fire swept everything away 
in 1854. The district was rebuilt for industrial work and that part of the 
city has been a busy hive ever since. 



Osgood Bradley Car Company 

THE OSGOOD BRADLEY CAR COMPANY'S plant at Green- 
dale is one of the largest of its kind and there are none better equipped 
for making all-steel cars, combination steel and wood cars, or 
wooden cars in the United States. In regard to the capacity of the shop, 
when running full it would be capable of turning out 600 all steel cars or 
that equivalent per year. 

There are now (March I) 1,110 men employed at the plant, but it is 
expected that before the gathering of the National Metal Trades members 
in Worcester, there will be added 500 more men to the payroll. 

Osgood Bradley, grandfather of John E. Bradley, president of the 
company, was born in Haverhill. He came to Worcester while a young 
man and began the building of stage coaches in 1820 — nearly a century ago, 
With the early beginnings of steam railroads he was among the first to 
build railroad cars, making the change from stage coach to railroad cars in 
1833, his first place of business being at the corner of Union and School 
streets, a section of Worcester made sacred to many manufacturers as the 
place of first beginnings of industries which have since startled the world. 

Later on, as the business developed, the elder Bradley moved his 
plant to Water Street, and in 1844 bought the property opposite the Old 
Union Depot, where the firm remained until it was compelled to move in 
1909 to its present plant in Greendale to make way for the new Union 
Station 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The Samuel Winslow Skate Mfg. Co. — 
Manufacturers of Ice and Roller Skates 

THE SAMUEL WINSLOW SKATE MFG. CO. is the largest con- 
cern in the world devoted exclusively to the manufacture of skates, 
and none have the capacity for turning out skates which this firm 
has. It was established by Samuel Winslow, father of Congressman Sam- 
uel E. Winslow of Worcester. 

American Car Sprinkler 

Worcester is the birthplace of the car sprinkler. The man who in- 
vented it was J. B. Gathright, of Louisville, Kentucky. The capacity of 
the car is from 2,500 to 3,000 gallons. One car will sprinkle from 7 to 10 
miles of street three times daily, according to the surface of the street, 
whether it be dirt, gravel, macadam or block paving. The car sprinkler 
is made by the American Car Sprinkler Co., of Worcester. 

Morgan Construction Company — 
Pioneers in Rolling Mills 

AS HAS been stated previously, the late Charles H. Morgan, of the 
Morgan Construction Co., made the first rolling mill in 1880. These 
Mills are the last word in efficiency and economy of producing 
wire rods, thin flats, merchant bars, small billets, etc. 

Worcester takes the lead in rolling mills, and this is particularly true 
of continuous rolling mills, which have been designed and manufactured 
in Worcester by this company and put in use all the way from Chicago to 
Vienna. The number, of rolling plants designed and built in the United 
States, Canada and Europe by this company is decidedly interesting. In 
addition to the above, the company has furnished a great amount of 
special rolling machinery throughout the world. It is also one of the 
largest producers of safe and efficient wire-drawing equipment, and regarded 
as one of Worcester's best firms. 

Charles Thurbers Typewriter 

IN 1843 a really complete typewriter was invented by Charles Thurber, 
who lived in Worcester at that time. He took out a patent, followed 
two years later by another, for a typewriting machine which, although 
very slow, was capable of doing good work. This model is interesting as 
affecting the letter spacing by longitudinal motion of a platen, a principle 
which is a feature of all modern machines. The Thurber machine was 
never manufactured, however, and the only model in existence is now pre- 
served by the Worcester Society of Antiquity. 

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The first record of an attempt to produce a typewriter is found in the 
records of the British patent office. These show that on January 7, 1714, 
a little over 200 years ago, a patent was granted to Henry Mill, an English 
engineer of repute, for a machine which was intended to do writing. "A 
device intended for the impressing or transcribing of letters singly or 
progressively one after another as in writing, whereby all writings whatso- 
ever may be engrossed in paper or parchment so neat and exact as not to be 
distinguished from print." But the secret evidently died with the inventor 
as nothing is known of the machine. 

The first typewriter ever constructed in America was the invention of 
William Austin Burt, of Detroit, better known as the inventor of the solar 
compass, who took out the first American patent ever issued for a type- 
writer in 1829. The machine was exceedingly crude and the record of 
this patent and the only model of the machine was destroyed by fire in the 
patent office in 1836. Between that time and 1873 many efforts were 
made to make a workable machine, until it was left to a man named James 
Densmore, of Meadville, Pa., who got a crudely written letter from C. 
Latham Sholes, a printer and editor, who was also collector of customs for 
the port of Milwaukee, and who had for years been experimenting on a 
machine with a friend named Samuel W. Soule, also a printer, to perfect 
a machine which was finally taken by Densmore and a friend, G. W. N. 
Yost, to E. Remington & Sons, who had a gun factory at Ilion, N. Y. This 
firm agreed to undertake the manufacture of the machine, and their 
skillful workmen so improved on the machine that it finally came to be 
known as the Remington Typewriter. 

The first machines were ready for the market in 1874, and the firm of 
Densmore & Yost were the first selling agents. The commercial side of 
the venture was a checkered one, for the public had to be convinced that 
the machine was a practical one. 

Success soon followed, however, and for the last quarter of a century 
the typewriter has taken high rank as one of the most useful, necessary 
and ingenious devices of the age. Nothing has appeared more calculated 
to spread intelligence since the invention of printing, and the typewriter 
is now found in every office of any size. 

World-Labeling Machines 

WORCESTER is the home of the world labeling machine manu- 
factured by the Economic Machinery Co., one of the members 
of the National Metal Trades Association. 
Frank O. Woodland, of Worcester, vice-president and treasurer of the 
company, is the inventor and designer of the machine, which was first 
placed on the market over 10 years ago, and was the first machine to be 
successful in placing two labels on a bottle at one operation. 

Although the labeling art was well developed at the time that the 
Economic Machinery Company entered the field, no machine had ever 

ii7 




John J. Adams Cutting Die Shop, Worcester, Mass. 

President and Treasurer, John J. Adams Vice-President, John J. Adams, Jr. 

Secretary, Amelia A. Adams 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



been devised that would place a couple of labels at one operation and do 
it sufficiently successful to be used regularly. 

This machine was invented in Worcester and has always been made 
here, and this company is the largest maker of labeling machines exclusively 
in the world. 

Pliny Earl — Card Clothing Expert 

AH. HOWARD of this city says that Pliny Earl, of Leicester, 
made the first card clothing for Samuel Slater, who started the 
first cotton mill in this country in the year 1 790. 

This card clothing was made with a leather foundation, the teeth 
made on a hand machine, the holes pricked in the leather with two needles 
mounted in a handle, and the wire teeth were then set in the leather foun- 
dation by hand; a process exceedingly slow when compared with the speed 
of card setting machines of the present make that form the teeth, prick 
the holes and set the teeth at the rate of 400 per minute. 

Hand cards were used at a much earlier date than card clothing. 

The machine for setting card clothing is an American invention being 
patented in the year 1 797 by one Amos Whittemore. The patent was 
reissued in 1809, over 100 years ago. When the petition for the renewal 
of the patent came before Congress favorable action was taken, after some 
little deliberation, by a vote of 55 in the affirmative and 18 in the negative. 

There are no records of any speeches delivered for or against the re- 
newal of this patent, but it is stated that John Randolph of Roanoke thus 
expressed himself with the most emphatic eloquence for which he was 
noted: "Yes, I would renew it to all eternity for it is the only machine 
that ever had a soul." 

While Mr. Whittemore obtained the patent and profited thereby it 
is understood that not he but Eleazor Smith, Walpole, was the real inventor 
of the machine. They had been shopmates and it is claimed that while Mr. 
Smith was building the machine Mr. Whittemore, who was also a skilled 
mechanic, managed to keep himself informed of what Mr. Smith was doing. 
This was not difficult as Mr. Smith was of a confiding nature. From Mr. 
Mr. Smith's ideas Mr. Whittemore built a machine which he sent to the 
patent office before the completion of Mr. Smith's machine. 

At the expiration of the renewed patent in 1825 orders were received 
from England and France for machines, but their complexity was so im- 
perfectly understood by foreign mechanics that it became necessary to 
send over American workmen to set up the machines and put them in 
running condition. 

Because of the patent on this machine, which compelled the payment 
of royalties to Mr. Whittemore, many firms in this country still manu- 
factured card clothing by hand in the old manner of pricking holes in the 
foundation, making the teeth on a separate machine and sending the 
pricked foundation into the homes in town and country where the women 
and children set in the teeth one at a time. 

119 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



L. S. Starrett — Mechanic, Dairyman, 
Inventor 

ON THE 25th of April, 1914, L. S. Starrett will have reached his 78th 
birthday. A ripe old age, but one that finds this veteran of the 
hardware trade enjoying the best of health and pursuing his usual 
business and social activities. 

Mr. Starrett was born in China, Maine, April 25, 1836. His country 
school privileges were limited to about two months in the winter and a 
short term in the summer. 

He early developed a keen interest in things mechanical and loved to 
work with tools. When he was nine years old he saved up his pennies, which 
then came few and far between, and with a few he borrowed from his 
friends, bought at an auction sale a bit brace, a set of bits, a screwdriver, 
and a spokeshave. From that time on he was wrapped up in "making 
something." At first it was simply things for the house and barn, but as 
he became adept as a mechanic he busied himself by making things of 
his own origination. 

At the age of I 7 his desire to work constantly with tools became strong- 
er than his love for the farm, so he left home to go to Newburyport to work 
in a machine shop. But work was slack and there was no room for him. 
Nothing daunted, he went to work on a dairy farm, and soon became an 
efficient dairy man. But on rainy days he was always working at his 
inventions. So well did he apply himself that, in 1865, he took out three 
patents — one for a washing machine, another for a butter worker, and a 
third for a meat chopper. To manufacture the inventions, he sold his 
farm interests, and started a machine shop in Newburyport. It was in in- 
troducing these products that he first started his acquaintance with the 
hardware trade. In 1868 he moved to Athol, where the Athol Machine 
Company was organized for the purpose of manufacturing his inventions, 
among them being the American meat chopper, and the shoe hook fastener. 
After he had been with the Athol company several years, misfortunes 
began to come to him. He lost his wife who had been a constant help and 
inspiration to him; lost control of stock in the company, and with this went 
his position; and last but not least, he lost his hearing. With four mother- 
less children to provide for, with no position and little money, and with his 
hearing gone, an ordinary man would have knuckled under. But Mr. 
Starrett believed in hard work. He sat up until the small hours of the morn- 
ing working out inventions with which to provide for his children and him- 
self. He soon felt sure enough of some of his inventions to start in business 
again. 

His first product when he commenced business for himself, was the 
tool that started the Starrett line. It was the Starrett combination square, 
invented after he had seen how inadequate was the ordinary square for 
mechanics. 

It met with instant success. Incidentally, this led to the addition of 




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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



steel rules, calipers, squares, etc.; eventually to the full line of Starrett 
tools. The first few thousand of his squares were manufactured for Mr. 
Starrett under contract by a machine shop when business was dull. When 
he attempted to introduce the combination square to hardwaremen, they 
admitted its advantages, but said there was no call for it, and until mech- 
anics knew about it they would not care to stock it. Mr. Starrett saw the 
point, hired agents to canvass manufacturing establishments, take orders 
and sell to the men. The success which met the introduction of this first 
tool encouraged him to invent and market others. 

His business soon outgrew his manufacturing capacity, so he was 
obliged to move to larger quarters. To his original combination square he 
added steel rules, surface gauges, screw pitch gauges. He was soon com- 
pelled to enlarge his quarters again, so he bought a large factory. In 1888 
he added two stories to this, and in 1 894 he built two large additions. Since 
then the plant has received many enlargements. 

Mr. Starrett is one of Athol's leading citizens, and one of the most 
public spirited. He is a great friend of the young men, and is ever ready 
to lend a helping hand. The Athol Y. M. C. A., was made possible through 
his generosity, for he gave not only the site but $35,000 as well. It is inter- 
esting to know that the site of this Y. M. C. A. building is also the place 
where his first machine shop stood, and to make way for the new building, 
the machine shop — one of Athol's landmarks — was torn down. 



Tech Graduate Made First Auto in America 

SEVERAL WEEKS AGO the man who made the first automobile 
in America, Elwood Haynes, visited Worcester. He is a graduate of 
the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and returned after a period of 
33 years to his alma mater with the distinction stated above. He had the 
pleasure of visiting many places of interest in his old home town and 
marveled at the tremendous progress shown — equally as great as the 
advance made in locomotion and transportation in that time. Mr. Haynes 
toured the Heart of the Commonwealth in a car made possible by his 
genius, and afterwards was banqueted by his friends in the Auto Club 
and congratulated on the test he made of stellite, his new metal alloy, 
which he conducted at the Tech in the presence of an admiring audience. 
This metal alloy is harder than any metal yet discovered. 

Mr. Haynes is cousin of Prof. George H. Haynes, of the Tech, who 
entertained his relative while in Worcester. 

The Haynes Automobile Co., is located in Kokomo, Ind., and it was 
there that the Worcester Tech graduate made the first car, and thus 
placed millions of pleasure-loving as well as business people under ever- 
lasting gratitude to him. 

123 






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Warren Steam Pump Company 

IN THE TOWN of Warren, 25 miles from Worcester, there has been in 
existence for the past 1 6 years a company which probably cannot be 
duplicated in the state. The Warren Steam Pump Co. broke all tradi- 
tional records in organization, as it was formed by the employees of the 
company rather than by a few men commonly called employers. These 
citizens of Warren had previously been employed by a large pump com- 
pany which was absorbed by the so-called pump trust, and which moved 
away from the town. But the men were not to be denied employment, 
and so formed the Warren Steam Pump Co. and invested their savings in 
that company's stock. Many of the workmen owned their homes and 
were interested in the town's progress. 

It is little wonder, then, that this company, with its workmen as 
stockholders, every one loyal and working for the success of the entire 
plant, through the sterling quality of its product, has made most gratify- 
ing progress. It has always manufactured a strictly high-grade pumping 
apparatus, and has furnished practically all the leading engineering con- 
cerns in the country with its product. It is now supplying battleships and 
torpedo boat destroyers with a large number of marine pumps, built 
under their own patents. 

It is the first concern known to use rolled Monel metal linings for steam 
pumps, which cannot be corroded either by the action of salt or water con- 
taining impurities. Since the company was formed, it has always catered 
to a class that demanded high-grade material. Branch offices of the com- 
pany are in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. 



Just Stiffen the Upper Lip 

When troubles come thick upon you, 
From depression in business, 
From hustling competition without 
And politics within the U. S. of A., 
From legislative halls, 
From lack of business methods, 
From inefficient help, 
From any cause, — 
Don't give up the ship. 

Just stiffen the upper lip, 

Smile while every one thinks you're beaten, 

And go to it, American fashion, 

And win; 

For the business world lauds a winner. 

And Success brings Success. 




Baxter D. Whitney 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Warp Compressing Machine 

IN 1894 David McTaggart, a well-known mill man in Worcester and 
a native of Scotland, having made noted improvements in spooling 
machinery, organized the Warp Compressing Machine Company, and 
began building machinery embodying his patents in Worcester. 

He continued the business until his death, in 1907, when his son, 
David D. McTaggart, became manager and continued as such until his 
death, in 1912. Since then a new corporation has been formed, the first 
of its kind in Worcester, being owned, controlled and managed exclusively 
by Worcester women. 

The officers of the new corporation are president, Mrs. Agnes L. Mc- 
Taggart, treasurer and general manager. Miss Martha L. McTaggart. 
Those with Miss Anna L. McTaggart comprise the board of directors. 
The new company is located at 105 Exchange and is doing a prosperous 
and growing business. 

Rice, Barton & Fales — 
Paper Machinery Manufacturers 

THE RICE, BARTON & FALES Corporation was established in 
1837 and is both one of the oldest and one of the largest in the coun- 
try in the manufacture of paper and pulp machinery. There is 
only one other firm in the United States building paper, pulp and similar 
machinery which was established prior to the Worcester one. 

Rice, Barton & Fales has a world-wide reputation in that trade, and 
has always been regarded as one of Worcester's best firms. 

Baxter D. Whitney — Inventor 
Oldest Member of the Worcester Branch 

A PIONEER in the manufacture of woodworking machinery in 
Massachusetts, is Baxter D. Whitney, of Winchendon, oldest 
member of the Worcester Branch, N. M. T. A. He was born in 
Winchendon, in 1817. His early education received in his native town 
was supplemented afterward at Hancock, N. H., and Fitchburg. 

The lad's attention was early turned to machinery, probably largely 
owing to his father's owning a woolen mill in Winchendon. It was in the 
repair shop of this old mill that Whitney received the practical part of 
his education, that which shaped his future life in its business sense. His 
mechanical genius was manifested by his construction, when 10 years of 
age, of a small saw mill, operated by the water collected in a pond he formed 
by damming a small stream. Although the lumber sawing capacity was 
limited, even in proportion to the power expended, the effort showed the 
bent of the young mind and indicated the sphere of its future activity. 

127 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Before Baxter D. Whitney had reached manhood he had become a 
skilled mechanic, able to hold his own with men of many more years or 
experience. He was observant, ingenious, quick to grasp conditions, and 
could look ahead. 

Mr. Whitney's first business venture was the building of machinery 
for the manufacture of tubs and pails, utilizing for this purpose a corner 
of his father's factory. In 1837, however, he built 16 looms for weaving 
cashmere. His next step was to build two or three steam jigs. Then, in 
an old building that stood back of the present factory, the young man 
constructed a planing machine. Although this was not the first cylinder 
planing machine ever made, it was certainly the first practical cylinder 
planer built, and embodied, in addition, some other innovations — Mr 
Whitney's original ideas. 

The first Whitney planing machine was constructed in 1846. The 
machine was a practical success and some of the then new features incor- 
porated by the young man in his first planer, are used in every planer 
turned out by the firm to-day. 

Mr. Whitney's thoughts had been attracted to wood-working machin- 
ery on account of the extensive forest growth in the locality where he re- 
sided and its surroundings. It created a local demand for machinery that 
would work up the product at hand. The improvements made in the 
machines he built attracted more than local interest, and demands came 
in from various sections for still other machines. Usually the wants of 
the customer were not only met, but the inventive genius of the young man 
was brought into play to secure some changes or additions that made 
the machine constructed by him a decided improvement over the one 
previously used. 

A feature that makes the establishment and growth of this business 
seem the more remarkable, is that all supplies for the Whitney shops 
were transported from Boston and other points by teams, the railroad not 
having been built until 1847. 

The present dam at the Whitney plant, which furnishes the water 
power, was built by him in 1845, an excellent piece of engineering work 
to have withstood the winter frosts and spring freshets of 60 years. 

In 1857 Mr. Whitney made his first scraping machine. It was used 
for paring box rims, and like the planer, embodies some new ideas that 
are still in force, no better ones having been found. About that time also 
the Whitney shaper and the Whitney gauge lathe were designed. 

Mr. Whitney has always been gifted with a wonderful memory for 
names and details, which advancing years seem not to have impaired. 

At the breaking out of the Civil War, a large number of Mr. Whitney's 
employees enlisted, and he was strongly inclined to close his works. But 
so many new orders were received that he was kept busy building machinery 
for turning out the wood stocks used on the old-fashioned muskets and 
even on the then new Springfield rifles. Mr. Whitney himself built 
the machinery employed to do this work. 

To attempt to recount the influence of this one man during the last 



128 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



60 years, on the wood-working industry, would be an impossibility. But 
to Baxter D. Whitney is, in a large measure, due much of the improved 
machinery, many added facilities and a great deal of the progress that has 
been made. 

In his own establishment he displayed a similar spirit of advance- 
ment. The Whitney workmen were always equipped with the best tools 
obtainable. He was the first to introduce a radial drill into the United 
States. This machine was bought from Sir Joseph Whitworth, of Man- 
chester, England, in 1867, and its present condition is still good enough 
to do most creditable work. 

Like many another successful industrial establishment, the Whitney 
works started from humble beginnings. Little by little, guided by genius, 
and aided by circumstances, they increased until now they give employ- 
ment to a large force of men, and occupy in buildings and ground, an area 
of about 10 acres. 

At the beginning Mr. Whitney placed his standard high, a standard 
he has not only maintained in every machine turned out of his plant, but 
he has moved it constantly forward as the demands of the day and his 
judgment and foresight pointed to needed improvement. 

For the past few years Baxter D. Whitney has exercised but a passive 
interest in the works, the active management devolving entirely upon 
William M. Whitney, his son and partner, whose aim, true to that of his 
father, is to make the Whitney Plant a model of its kind, and to maintain 
the same position for the Whitney machines that they have always occupied 
in the wood-working world. 

A Thousand Vacuum Cleaners per Day 

THE ABOVE is the record of the M. S. Wright Co., one of our mem- 
bers, when the firm is running full blast. Who invented the vacuum 
cleaner? That is about as stiff a problem as determining who in- 
vented the process for drawing wire. It would seem as if the vacuum clean- 
ing process came into the world's use flying gently over the air — that it 
came so gradually that there was little or no special invention at the first, 
from the fact that machinery for creating vacuum had been invented and 
used for many years in other lines of work, for instance, the melodeon or 
reed organ, which employed suction to operate the reeds. There are many 
other uses, and it was not until nozzles or means of getting the vacuum into 
contact with the carpet or surface to be cleaned, became general, that vacu- 
um cleaning was made practical. 

In England the Booth patent was considered the most practical, and 
in America for installing plants the Kenney patent has been acknowledged 
as the best, but there are thousands of patents and various types of machines 
so that it is difficult to say who really was responsible in the first place for 
vacuum cleaning. This firm manufactures the pneuvac cleaner, sold 
through the Pneuvac Company in Boston, which the company controls. 

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When the firm operates its full force, full time, it can turn out 1 ,000 
machines per day. 

The art of cleaning by means of vacuum has been known for several 
years, but it is within the last 10 years that it has become known in general. 
Several crude machines were invented 30 years ago but were not successful. 

Less than 10 years ago it would cost $5.00 or $8.03 to clean an average 
sized carpet while at the present time it is practically only a few cents. 
The greatest factor towards making vacuum cleaning universal or commer- 
cial is electricity. Where five or six H. P. was necessary a few years ago, 
an electric motor of less than x ± H. P. is sufficient to-day. The second 
factor is the newly improved type of machine that operates with little or 
no friction, so that when the power is applied to the cleaner the efficiency at 
the nozzles is about 90 ' ; of the total power exerted. 

The best type of portable electric machines to-day use only 12 cents' 
worth of electricity for ten hours, or a trifle over a cent an hour. This fact, 
of course, made electric cleaning more popular. 

Science, however, never stands still and is always involving and to-day 
by means of the carpet type of cleaner it is possible to clean the heaviest 
and dirtiest carpet thoroughly as well as with the old type of electric or 
hand machine. 

To accomplish this, however, the machine must be scientifically con- 
structed and perfectly built using roller bearings and every possible means 
of avoiding friction. One person can operate it the same as a carpet sweeper 
and does not require but a little more effort than the carpet sweeper. 

Albert Curtis — Manufacturer, 
Benefactor 

ALBERT CURTIS was born in Worcester, July 13, 1807. While 
/ \ very young he worked on his uncle's farm in Auburn, and at the 
age of I 7 began work as an apprentice with White & Boyden, manu- 
facturers of woolen machinery, at their factory in South Worcester. Later 
he began the manufacture of machinery and in 1842 the factory was de- 
stroyed by fire. It was rebuilt and operated as a mill for the manufacture 
of cotton sheeting Mr. Curtis became a partner with the late E. T. Marble, 
under the name of Curtis & Marble Machine Co. This firm is one of the 
most reliable of its kind in the trade. 

Mr. Curtis died July 27, 1898, aged 91 years. By his will, the local 
Young Men's Christian Association received a large sum of money. 

George H. Coates — Inventor and Designer 

THE COATES CLIPPER Manufacturing Company was started in 
a very small way by George H. Coates in Worcester in 1876. Mr. 
Coates was graduated from Windsor Academy and served his 
apprenticeship there in the manufacture of firearms. Coming to Worces- 

131 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



ter, he was employed as assistant superintendent of the Ethan Allen Com- 
pany and was in their employ until the panic of 1875 made business con- 
ditions in that line so uncertain he decided to take up a specialty of his own. 
At that time very few clippers were used in the United States, and 
these were imported from England. They were, of course, very expensive, 
and the cost of repairing parts and resharpening were prohibitive. Seeing 
a future for this industry, Mr. Coates started in by designing special 
machinery for sharpening these foreign-made clippers. The same ideas 
are involved in the company's grinding machines to-day. His venture 
met with such success that he designed several improvements on clippers 
and started shortly to manufacture them. 

A human hair measures one-thousandth of an inch, and a pair of 
plates must be subjected to at least 30 pounds pressure to resist the hair; 
the plate being very thin makes the question of grinding vital. 

In 1880 Mr. Coates built a small shop on Chandler Street and has 
added to it from time to time until to-day he has over an acre of floor 
space and employs nearly 1 00 men. 

The Coates Clippers are to-day made in nearly 100 styles for human 
or animal hair, covered by 60 patents, and are sold all over the world. 
Few people think when glancing at woolen garments that the wool is 
removed from the sheep almost universally to-day by sheep shearers. This 
is but one of the manifold uses to which their output is devoted. 

Several years ago Mr. Coates associated with him his son, B. Austin 
Coates, who is general manager. 

Last year the company milled 12,000,000 teeth for hair cutting. In 
the manufacture of horse clipping and sheep shearing machinery a flexible 
shaft is necessary, and this being an exclusive patent of Mr Coates , he 
decided about four years ago to specialize on flexible transmission. To-day 
the company makes this shafting in sizes transmitting from one-tenth 
horse power in speedometer and dental engines to 1 50 horse power used 
for heavy unit transmission work. The firm also makes flexible shaft 
specialties, such as massage machines, electric drills, multipliers, varnish 
rubbing outfits. 

Henry D. Perky — Inventor, Idealist, Soldier 

HENRY D. PERKY was not born in Worcester— Ohio was his 
home — but it was in Worcester that he became famous, and his 
product is known to-day the world over. Mr. Perky first began 
to manufacture cereals — shredded wheat — in Boston, but he did not find 
conditions at "The Hub of the Universe" to suit him, and in a few months 
removed to Worcester. In 1892 he began the manufacture of shredded 
wheat in a shop at 57 Jackson Street, and while there he built up a tre- 
mendous business. 

Many of Worcester's busy men and women will remember with 
pleasure and satisfaction the numerous course dinners Mr. Perky enter- 
tained them to while he was demonstrating the many ways in which 

133 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



shredded wheat could be made attractive for table use. There were appe- 
tizing meals of every description, to which Worcester's leading business 
and educational people were invited, and at which Mr. Perky and his able 
assistants served as many as 25 to 40 courses. The writer of this book 
attended many of these functions in his capacity as a newspaper man. They 
were always a big success. 

Mr. Perky bought the Oread Castle and converted it into a school for 
domestic economy, which he carried on for several years, and for which he 
gave, free of charge, a complete course to one girl from every state in the 
Union. But in 1903 the shredded wheat business became so enormous in 
volume that he moved his factory to Niagara Falls, and there the business 
passed out of his hands. The building is one of the best in the country. 
Later Mr. Perky went to Baltimore County, Md., where he established 
another Oread on similar lines to that in Worcester, situated near Glencoe 
Station. He died several years ago from a stroke of apoplexy, aged 62 
years. 

He was a veteran of the Civil War, had practiced law, was a scholar, 
and thought and acted in large things. He invented a steel tubular rail- 
road car which he declared would prevent telescoping of cars in railroad 
accidents. 

Eight Hundred Hides Per Day 

THE GRATON & KNIGHT MANUFACTURING CO. of Worces- 
ter has the largest and best equipped plant of its kind in the world 
for tanning and currying hides and manufacturing the same into 
leather belting, the capacity being over 200,000 hides per annum. 

The firm was established in 1851, incorporated in 1872 with a capital 
of $100,000, but the company now has a paid-in capital of $2,000,000, 
showing the steady and substantial growth characteristic of Worcester's 
industries. The first tannery was built in 1867, with a capacity of only a 
few hundred hides annually. The firm now manufactures about six miles 
of leather belting per day, and cutting up leather that would be the equiva- 
lent of 800 hides per day, employing about 1200 men. 

The firm has stores all over the United States and in several foreign 
countries. An important part of the organization is an engineering depart- 
ment, which makes an exhaustive study of adapting special belts to special 
lines of work with a view to developing the most economical power trans- 
mission that can be produced. 

The Whittall Mills 

THE WHITTALL business was founded in 1880 by its present owner, 
M. J. Whittall. In 1872 Mr. Whittall came to this country from 
England, became superintendent of the Crompton Carpet Co., and 
upon the dissolution of that concern started his present business with a 
few looms brought from his native country. 

135 




David H. Fanning 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



From this modest beginning, the immense group of mills in South 
Worcester developed. Every year or two it has been necessary to add on 
to the old buildings or to build new ones to supply the increasing demands 
for Whittall fabrics, known the world wide over. 

Mr. Whittall is now the largest individual carpet manufacturer in the 
world. He is one of the beloved employers of labor in Worcester, and the 
loyalty and efficiency of his work people is the best test of their fair treat- 
ment. With Mr. Whittall is associated in the firm his son, Matthew 
Percival Whittall. 

The firm name is the Whittall Associates, the officers being: Presi- 
dent and treasurer, Matthew J. Whittall; vice-president and assistant 
treasurer, Matthew Percival Whittall. 

In connection with the Edgeworth Mills, Alfred Thomas has as a 
partner Matthew J. Whittall. 

David H. Fanning — Corset Manufacturer 
years young 



83 



ONE OF THE favorite attractions of visitors to Worcester is the 
Royal Worcester Corset Co.'s plant on Wyman Street. They 
may walk into the office and ask to be shown through the factory, 
and their wish is granted. 

One may say that this is a rather unusual proceeding to ask such a 
favor while business is in full swing. It is in most factories, but not in the 
Royal Worcester. There one will find a staff of young women whose duty it 
is to conduct parties over one of the most ideal factory plants in the United 
States. It does not in the least matter whether there is a party of 20 or 60 
to be conducted or whether one is all alone stealing an hour off from a busy 
day, an attractive and intelligent girl will show the wonders, for it is 
plainly evident that the employees are as proud of their plant as is the 
president, David H. Fanning. 

Mr. Fanning has reason to be proud of his factory and his employees, 
of the grounds surrounding the buildings and of his product, for in these 
he sees the realization of an ideal he placed before himself when he first 
began the manufacture of corsets with one assistant in a small room 50 
years ago. The one small room has grown to be one of the largest, most mod- 
ern and best equipped plants, and instead of the one woman employee there 
are nearly 2,000 people, mostly women and girls — at work the year round. 

In many other lines of business there are dull times, but women wear 
corsets 365 days in the year and if there is a change of fashion in London 
and Paris, the styles of last year may be quite the vogue in China and 
Japan, with that of last spring just coming out in Australia or New Zealand. 
It will be seen from that statement that the Royal Worcester corset is to 
be found all over the world which is a statement of fact, for they are sold 
in 50 countries. And if woman should eventually become emancipated 
from the corset as she is from many forms of restriction, the Royal 

137 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester people will probably go on manufacturing whatever lovely 
woman demands in its stead. 

This marvellous plant is situated on a pleasantly shaded street. It is 
a great double-winged building, with no outside ornateness. Heavy oak 
doors swing easily to admit the visitors and they stand in a wide entrance 
hall, flanked on either side by rows of offices separated from each other by 
glass and oak partitions. In a few moments the sightseers are being greeted 
by an official of the company as courteously as though he were welcoming 
to his own home. He conducts them to a reception room overlooking lawns 
and flower gardens. One of the girls makes her appearance and they are 
shown into the busy factory. There the ceilings are lofty, walls are white, 
floors clean and every corner of the room is as light as outdoors. 

Six hundred women and girls, all stitching corsets, is one of the sights. 
Plenty of room, and everything going forward in the most perfect order. 
All machinery is electrically operated, a touch of the foot of each operator 
starts or stops each machine on the instant. The air is freshened contin- 
uously by a blower system which accounts for the fresh, healthy look on the 
faces of the girls. In this stitching room are women who have been stitch- 
ing corsets for upwards of 20 years. 

There is the designing room, the cutting room with men at work cut- 
ting out three dozen corsets at a time. Here is a room where the bones are 
inserted, there the embroidery is cut, ribbon inserted, another where the 
heavy web elastic stocking supporters are made and stitched on. The 
boxes are manufactured, labels are printed on the spot as well as all the 
other printed matter that leaves the factory in the way of information or 
advertising. Under the glow of a radium light, the webs of material are 
examined and below are the great packing rooms. 

Throughout the building 40 bubbling fountains supply drinking water, 
and for the girls who cannot conveniently go home for the noonday meal, 
there is a large diningroom with white floors and wainscotting, with palms 
and other plants in the windows. There are also special facilities for heating 
food. Near the diningroom is a library where the public library keeps a 
constant supply of books and the firm subscribes for a splendid assortment 
of all the best magazines. As the girls work by the piece, they may have a 
magazine near their machine to which to turn when a little relaxation is 
needed. A victrola furnishes the best music, while welfare classes and 
social uplift lectures are given by specialists during the noon hour. On the 
second floor is a miniature hospital with several cots and with a nurse in 
constant attendance. Care is given to safety to life and health. The 
water used is doubly filtered and cooled by the company's filtering and 
refrigerating apparatus and steel doors, automatically operated, separate 
the rooms. 

The president's and directors' rooms are both finished in solid ma- 
hogany and on the large mahogany table in the president's room stands a 
silver loving cup presented Mr. Fanning on his 80th birthday by the 
employees. He has been the controlling spirit of the company from its 
inception, and to his individuality and leadership and that of a finely equip- 

138 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



ped working force of executives and operatives, is due the tremendous suc- 
cess of this firm. 

There are a dozen other corset factories located in Worcester, all of 
them doing a thriving business, although not in the volume of the Royal 
Worcester Co. 

Worcester; 1848—1898 

THE FOLLOWING verses by Frank Roe Batchelder were written for 
"The Worcester of 1898," edited by Franklin P. Rice and published 
by the Blanchard Press. It is 15 years ago since Mr. Batchelder 
penned these lines, but they are even more applicable to the Worcester of 
to-day than they were of the place that had just completed a half century 
of city life. 

Five decades have her children kept 

Her civic honor free from stain. 
While with the world she's laughed and wept, 

And shared her country's loss and gain. 

Foremost in all that makes for good, 

With bounty ranging far and wide. 
From the straight path of rectitude 

Her feet have never turned aside. 

Fecund in wise and generous law. 

Her lesser sisters look to her 
For high example, void of flaw, 

In genius to administer. 

The hiss of Scandal's venomed tongue 

Dies ere it reaches her confines; 
No hint of broken trust has flung 

Disgrace upon her large designs. 

She toils and ventures, strives and builds. 

And seeks to sweeten life for all 
The craftsmen of her thousand guilds 

Who answer to her every call. 

Crowned by the smoke of many mills, 

She welcomes workers to her gate; 
And in her children's hearts instils 

Love for the toil that makes her great. 

Proud of her myriad machines, 

Her flashing looms, her glowing fires, 
Not less to other good she leans, 

Not less to gentler art aspires. 

139 




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Patron of every useful thing, 

She sits at Learning's feet, nor finds 

Her glory less that she should bring 
Her tribute to the might of minds. 

So has she made and kept her place, 
And taught her name to distant lands, 

Her skill the marvel of the race — 
Far sought the labor of her hands 

Great where her least result is known. 

From her grim, busy factories 
Her products go to every zone 

In ships that sail the seven seas. 

Yet does she make, when all is said, 
No product more desired of men, 

No brighter chaplet for her head, 
Than her grand type of citizen. 

In war, in peace, in school, in shop, 
Beyond the knowledge of her name. 

Rising insistent to the top, 

Those she has bred have brought her fame. 

A little while we hold her trust 
Till Time sets others in our place; 

Let us not see her armor rust, 
Nor fear to look her in the face. 

When her bright century is run. 
Be ours to have our children say 

Their service is the better done 
For that we render her to-day. 



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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Men Who Helped Make Worcester 

HON. JAMES LOGAN, "Best loved citizen of Worcester," four 
times mayor of this city, native of Paisley, Scotland, is one of the 
great industrial leaders of the Heart of the Commonwealth. He 
has aided in large measure to build up one of its most substantial in- 
dustries, has risen from humble circumstances to that of wealth and in- 
fluence, and is now, as he has been since its organization, general mana- 
ger of the United States Envelope Co. 

He delivered an address before the American Society of Mechanical 
Engineers (Boston section), October 17 last in The Bancroft, in which 
he spoke of the industrial pioneers of Worcester. The paper is of such 
excellence, condensed yet possessing all the necessary facts, that we are 
pleased to make some extracts from it. Ex-Mayor Logan said: 

"Many of the industrial pioneers of Worcester did not have a vision 
of the present industrial life of the city with its population of over 160,- 
000 souls. They could not foresee the telegraph, telephone, wireless, 
electric light and power, the trolley car, typewriter and camera, and the 
thousand and one other inventions which go to make up our present com- 
plex, industrial life, and which have all come to us during the lifetime of 
men not yet old. But with the light they had, with the tools they had, 
they builded better than they knew. 

"The studies of grammar, rhetoric, poetry and the ancient classics 
were formerly referred to as the 'Humanities,' but the true students of the 
'Humanities' of our day are the men who are carrying on the work which 
makes possible the advance of civilization. In their ranks are found the 
pioneers and path-finders of commercial and industrial progress. They 
are the builders of railways, bridges, ships, sewers and reservoirs. They 
are the men who are inventing machinery by which not only the necessi- 
ties, but the comforts of life are brought within the reach of untold millions. 
"Did you ever stop to consider what mental vision is? — that it is not 
the eye but the mind that sees? The engineer, through the mind, by faith, 
saw the bridge which spans the mighty river, even before pencil had been 
put upon paper. In like manner, the inventor sees the perfected machine 
which is to lighten human toil, and so the bridge and the machine are no 
longer visions but realities. Then, reaching down below the level of the 
machine, a thousand or hundred thousand are lifted to a higher level and 
their labor lighter, not unmixed with joy, takes the place of laborious toil, 
and the product of their labor by its lower cost of production is brought 
within the reach of a million souls, and the comforts of life have been mul- 
tiplied and civilization has taken a step upward to a higher plane by way 
of the machine. 

"Worcester is known throughout the length and breadth of the land 
as the home of the skilled workman. It is the engineer and mechanic to 

143 




William A. Richardson 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



whom we are indebted for the proud position which our city holds in the 
Commonwealth and in the Nation. The hum of the machinery made in 
Worcester can be likened to the roll of Great Britain's drum which follows 
the rising sun around the circle of the globe. Worcester has done its part 
in the upward march of progress, for wherever man is found all over the 
world will be found machinery 'Made in Worcester.' 

"When Ichabod Washburn closed his eyes upon the scenes of earth, 
did he in imagination see the Worcester of to-day and the great American 
Steel & Wire Co., with its 7,000 employees? I think not. But he helped 
to lay a foundation which made the American Steel & Wire Co., and many 
of the other steel and wire industries possible. 

"I have not the knowledge or ability to tell you of the great wire 
industries of Worcester, which supply the wire that takes down from the 
heavens the wireless message and which also furnish the wire along which 
your message goes over the mountains and under the seas, by telephone and 
telegraph around the circle of the globe; which furnish the wire that 
transmits the electric current that lights your streets and homes, and that 
propels the trolley which takes you to your business or your home, and that 
furnishes the motive power which operates our shops; that fences the 
great ranch in the West or in the Argentine where the cattle are raised, 
which supply food for our table. It would be impossible to enumerate all 
the points at which Worcester touches the civilization of the world through 
the products of the iron and steel industries. My brother was an explorer 
in South Central America for over 20 years of his life and once having 
ascended the Magdalena River in Colombia to the foothills of the Andes 
the thought came to him that probably he was standing where the white 
man had never stood before, but within a half hour from the time he was 
thus soliloquizing he discovered a barbed wire fence and on the abandoned 
reels he found the familiar name of Washburn & Moen Mfg. Co., Worcester, 
Mass. 

"For the manufacture of paper greater power is required and also an 
abundant supply of pure water, which the roaring, raging Blackstone River 
at Worcester does not furnish. But, if we may not make the paper, we 
can render a larger service. We can supply those who do make the paper 
with the machines to make it, for it requires more ability and a higher de- 
gree of mechanical skill to invent and construct the machine than to oper- 
ate it. It is an interesting fact that in the city of Holyoke alone, which 
is rightly called the 'Paper City' of America, there are over 60 paper- 
making machines, and without exception, they could be labeled 'Made 
in Worcester.' 

"To the Rice, Barton & Fales Co., of this city, manufacturers of 
paper-making machinery is to be given high honor. Their records of the 
distant past are vague and indefinite, and they do not know how many 
machines they have made in their seventy-six years of business life. 

"But it is estimated that the number of new ones is somewhere 
between 500 and 700 machines. I might add that they are just shipping to 
one of the largest paper mills in Maine their 15th machine, making news 

io 145 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



print. And it can with truth be said that when the newspaper leaves the 
mill, it is not yellow but white. It is what the other fellow does to it that 
makes it yellow. 

"I never see one of those great machines, twice the size of the largest 
locomotive and weighing approximately 600 tons, turning out a sheet of 
paper from 12 to 15 feet wide and running at a speed equal to 175 miles 
each day of 24 hours, and the machine as nicely adjusted as the watch 
you carry in your pocket, that I do not take off my hat to the men who 
invented, constructed and who operate this mighty servant of mankind, 
which is 'Made in Worcester.' 

"Worcester is the principal home of the envelope industry in the 
United States. But little did the men who started this great industry 
appreciate what that business would be in 1913. We do know that the 
first successful envelope machine in this country, was invented by a physi- 
cian, Dr. R. L. Hawes, with a mechanical bent, who lived in Worcester 
and retired from the business with a feeling that the maximum of efficiency 
had been reached when the product of an envelope machine was 20,000 
envelopes per day; and it required three operators to operate two machines, 
thus giving a product of 13,000 per day for each operator. But the manu- 
facturer who to-day is satisfied with an average product of more than five 
times that product for a single operator, is not a factor in the present in- 
dustrial race. 

"Our honored friend and fellow citizen, David H. Fanning of the 
Royal Worcester Corset Co., hale and hearty with his eighty-three 
years of busy life, is still with us, doing his part, through the industry 
which he founded, to help make a larger and better Worcester. But when, 
in those blessed days of smaller things, with two helpers, a man and a 
woman, he began to make hoop skirts in a room 18 feet by 22 feet, he could 
not in imagination have foreseen the Royal Worcester Corset Co., of today, 
where they manufacture jewel cases by the million to hold the finest jewels 
all over this civilized world. 

"It is an interesting fact that while we make in this city of Worcester 
about every machine used in a woolen or cotton mill, we have few woolen 
mills and we have not a cotton mill here such as make up the great indus- 
tries of Lowell, Lawrence, New Bedford, Fall River and Chicopee. 

"Another of our honored citizens, Matthew J. Whittall, came to 
Worcester, bringing with him simply a clear head and willing hands, and, 
when others in the carpet business had failed of success, he asked for an 
opportunity to try. Even though his employer, Mr. Crompton, tried to 
dissuade him, he made the venture. He believed in the old saying: 

'He either fears his fate too much. 

Or his desserts too small, 
Who dares not put it to the touch. 

To win or lose it all.' 

He dared to put it to the touch and won, but he could not in those 
days foresee the great carpet works at South Worcester giving employ- 
ment to thousands. 



146 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



"When Henry Graton and Joseph A. Knight started their belting 
factory in those two little upper rooms on Front Street, with a capital 
of $800, they did not foresee the mammoth establishment now located 
on Franklin Street. 

"When the two brothers, J. A. and Orlando Norcross, just ordinary 
carpenters, but exceptional men, took their first contract to build the 
wooden Congregational Church in Leicester, Mass., they did not see the 
great Norcross Bros. Co., with an international reputation and with a 
confidence to undertake the largest construction work conceived by the 
mind of man. As Orlando once said to me: 'We will undertake to remove 
the pyramids, Logan, if you will find some one to supply the cash.' 

"The work of the Morgan Construction Co., is of international im- 
portance, so that wherever the manufacture of steel is carried on, their 
continuous rolling mills are doing their part to lighten human toil, But 
little did Charles H. Morgan think, in those early days in the town of 
Clinton when working on paper box machinery, that he would change his 
life-work from paper to iron and steel, and that the name of Morgan would 
be known in the steel industry throughout the world. 

"When the Norton Company were laying the foundations of their 
emery wheel business in that little 12 by 14 foot room with one employee, 
their honored superintendent, John Jeppson, who is still with them, they 
did not see a business of international proportions with its 1 ,700 employees 
in two continents. 

"When the Wyman & Gordon Co., was started in 1883 in that little 
frame building, 40 by 60 feet, where the two proprietors, both graduates 
of Tech, shared between them the responsibilities of janitor, fireman, 
bookkeeper, salesman and engineer, they did not see the evolutionary 
road which they were to travel, through shuttlebox, binders, loom crank 
shafts, car coupler knuckles, forgings for bicycles, electric rail bonds, 
to the automobile crankshaft which was to make them the leaders in this 
country in the automobile crankshaft industry. 

"If you were to journey into the wilds of Patagonia, to the great sheep 
ranches of the Argentine in South America which supply the world with 
wool, you will find the Coates Clipper doing its work, and if you go into a 
barber shop anywhere in the world, you will be likely to get your hair 
trimmed by a Coates clipper ' Made in Worcester.' 

"At the Polytechnic Institute we are taking the raw material and, 
passing it through the transformer, we are turning out a finished product 
of high voltage. Our finished product is the technical engineer, the man 
who can do things, and who does not talk about them but who does the 
job, who renders service. For over 40 years the Tech has never failed to 
declare a substantial dividend in the shape of a splendid body of young 
men who are sent out into the world of business and professional life, not 
only well equipped from an educational and scientific point of view, but 
with high ideals of service. 

"One of our most permanent institutions in this city is the Tech. The 
men now connected with it, the firms that now conduct the business of this 



147 




Gilbert N. Harrington 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



growing city, the machinery which sends its product to the ends of the 
earth will in time, and in a very short time, pass away. A hundred years 
is a long time even as men count time. Monuments will decay, trust funds 
will vanish, even our beautiful City Hall and all the buildings on Tech Hill 
will go the way of all the works of man, but the Tech will remain, its life 
will probably be longer than any of these things which I have mentioned, 
and, such being the case, we are to-day planning for this long and, of 
necessity, larger life for the years that are to be. 

"When John Boynton founded the Tech he believed in the future of 
Worcester, but when he planted that Institution on the Hill he did not 
foresee the future, but builded better than he knew. He supposed he was 
founding an institution where the boy who had not received all the advan- 
tages might have some of them made up to him; but he never dreamed 
that he was founding an institution where 'captains of industry,' the 
commissioned officers, so to speak, of the great industrial army were to 
be trained, and those commissions were within reach of the sons of the 
humblest man who walks the streets of Worcester. The Polytechnic 
Institute is doing the larger work in providing the line and staff officers for 
the industrial army, and now the city of Worcester, through the Worcester 
Trade School, is doing the work which Mr. Boynton thought he was pro- 
viding for, the education of the non-commissioned officers in the army of 
industry. 

"And now, in closing, may I turn your thoughts into another channel? 
We are living in a busy world and the burdens are many and heavy. Men 
in business and professional life give up their leisure and practically make 
themselves slaves to their profession. This is particularly true of engi- 
neers. They do this often with the thought in mind that the burden will 
some day be lighter, and that they will have a larger freedom by and by. 
They may never have it — they seldom do; for when that day arrives on 
which they might take that larger freedom toward which, when burdened 
with heavy cares, they have often looked forward with heavy hearts and 
longing eyes, they do not want it. Now work has become to them the 
habit of their lives and they say, as did that great empire builder of Africa — ■ 
Cecil Rhodes: 

'So little done, so much to do.' 

The point of view has changed Strength has been given to bear the 
heavier burdens, and they pray now not for a lighter load but for strength 
to carry the heavier burden. And here comes in the great compensation of 
life — that during all the years of strain and strife they have had this larger 
freedom in expectation, and that, after all, with most earthly possessions 
is more satisfying than the reality." 



149 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester's Railroads 

THE FACILITIES provided in Worcester for both passenger and 
freight transportation is perhaps the chief reason for its present high 
standing as a manufacturing centre. A city's populace may have 
inventive genius, skilled mechanics, natural resources and native ability, 
but without adequate railroad facilities for rapid shipping it is operating 
under a serious handicap. Worcester, even if it is not a seaport, is well 
favored. It is on the direct routes from Boston to New York and all points 
to the West. It enjoys all the benefits of fast passenger and freight trains, 
and within its radius has one handsome Union Depot, recently erected, 
and six additional passenger stations. 

The Boston Passenger House, the up-town terminal of the Boston & 
Worcester Railroad, finished in 1835, was situated at the corner of Foster 
and Norwich Streets and remained in use until the completion of the first 
Union Station at Washington Square in 1875. This was also the terminal 
of the first southern railroad, the Norwich & Worcester, completed in 1840. 
and the first northern railroad, the Worcester & Nashua, completed in 1848 
With the completion of those three roads Worcester secured its eastern, 
northern and southern connections. Its western connections were made 
when the Western railroad from Worcester to Albany was completed in 
1839. The Western railroad was consolidated with the Boston & Worcester, 
and has since been known as the Boston & Albany. 

Another connection with tide water was made when the Providence & 
Worcester railroad was completed in 1847, but this road had its depot on 
Green Street, and had no connection with the central station of the other 
roads only such as was afforded at the Worcester Junction, now known as 
South Worcester. 

The Old Boston Passenger House was for many years the centre of 
life and activity of the city half a century ago. The popular line of travel 
between Boston and New York was over the Boston & Worcester railroad 
to Worcester, then over the Norwich & Worcester railroad to Norwich and 
then through Long Island Sound by boats of the " Famous Norwich Lines." 
The Boston passengers, together with those from the north over the Nashua 
road and the Worcester passengers made up the largest and most important 
train in its day in New England. When this train with "Jack Hyde" at 
the throttle pulled out down over the Common back of the City Hall and 
the Old South Church on its way to Norwich, the sports and characters of 
Worcester, realizing that it was all off for that day, dispersed into the bowl- 
ing alleys and dispensaries on Mechanic Street and vicinity, but to repeat 
the same every week-day evening. 

The standard time of Worcester was the large chronometer which 
stood in the Head House passageway from Norwich Street to the train shed 
and for many years this time piece was known as "old reliable" by railroad 
men and the general public. 

The Boston and Worcester Railroad, the first in Massachusetts, and 
one of the oldest in the country, was incorporated June 23, 1831. It had a 

150 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



single track of 44 miles, laid with edge rails on cast iron chairs, resting on 
wooden sleepers bedded in trenches filled with stone, and was completed 
in about four years. The cost of labor, land, engines, cars and buildings was 
$1 ,500,000. The first car was a small coach-like affair 20 feet long, holding 
a dozen people in each of two compartments and entered by a side door. 
There was a row of seats around the inside, and the conductors passed from 
car to car by a railing around the outside. 

The Western Railroad was completed to Springfield in 1839; from 
Springfield to Chatham in 1841; there joining the Hudson and Berkshire 
Railroad, then built, making the complete line from Worcester to Albany 
in 1841. 

There were then five passenger trains and five freight trains daily, 
east and west. 

There are seven Railroad Stations in Worcester as follows: 

Union Passenger Station, Washington Square; Lincoln Square Station 
(B. & M. R. R.), Lincoln Square; Barber's Station (B. & M. R. R.) t West 
Boylston Street; Greendale Station (B & M. R. R.), West Boylston Street; 
Jamesville Station (B. & A. R. R.), at Jamesville; North Worcester Station 
(B. & M. R. R.), Holden Street; Summit Station (B. & M. R. R.), Burncoat 
Street. 

The passenger trains now over the Boston & Albany Railroad are: 

To the West: 4 — New York, 13 — West, 15 — Local; to the East: 4 — 
New York, 12 — Local, 16 — West. 

There are 25 freight trains each way to-day over the Boston & Albany 
Railroad and one fast express for the West. 

The passenger trains arriving and departing at the depot over the New 
York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad are: 10 trains to and from Provi- 
dence, 3 trains to and from New London, 2 trains to and from Putnam, 2 
trains local. 

There are 15 freight trains each way over the New York, New Haven 
& Hartford Railroad. 

Over the Boston & Maine Railroad there are the following passenger 
trains daily: 

2 to Portland, 5 to Nashua, I to Ayer, 13 Locals. 

12 Freight trains over the Boston &c Maine Railroad, each way to Port- 
land, Nashua, Ayer and local points. 

The abolishing of the grade crossings to the north and south of the 
city — and the latter of which has been accomplished, will probably cost 
between $4,750,000 and $5,000,000. It is an achievement long wished for 
by the citizens of Worcester. 



The Blackstone Canal 



THE BLACKSTONE Canal from Providence to Worcester was com- 
pleted in 1828. The first boat, the "Lady Carrington," arrived in 
Worcester, October 6th of that year, and was moored in the basin 
at the head of that canal. Her arrival was announced by the firing of 
cannon and the ringing of bells. 

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The 40 miles of canal cost about $700,000. The enterprise proved 
unprofitable to stockholders owing to the adoption not long afterward of the 
railroad system of passenger and freight transportation The last toll on 
the canal was collected November 9, 1848. 

Worcester's Trolley System 

THE APPROXIMATE number of miles of street railway tracks in 
Worcester County is 390. This trolley system connects Worcester 
with a population of nearly 400,000 in Worcester County. 

The first horse car run in Worcester was in 1861, the route being from 
Lincoln and Catherine Streets to Webster Square. This company was 
known as the Worcester Horse Car Company. The company operated for 
about two years and became bankrupt and no cars were run for about two 
years more, when a new company was organized and operated. Horse cars 
were discontinued about November 1, 1893. 

The first electric car was run in Worcester Feb. 22, 1887. This car 
was operated over the narrow guage railroad from Washington Square to 
Lincoln Park at Lake Quinsigamond by Horace G. Bigelow. It was not 
a success and operated only a very short time. 

The first successful electric car was run in Worcester on the Lake line 
from Shrewsbury and Mulberry Streets to Lincoln Park during the first 
week of August, 1891. The car was operated by the Worcester Consoli- 
dated Street Railway Company. The Spencer line was opened as an elec- 
tric line August 10, 1891. 

Worcester's trolley system is regarded by world travelers as one of 
the best equipped and safest of any city of importance in the United States. 

Worcester's Banking Business 

WORCESTER possesses a sound and reliable number of banking 
institutions. There are three national banks, one trust company, 
five savings banks, four co-operative banks. The aggregate 
deposits of the three national banks and trust company January 4, 1914, 
were $24,605,827.29. 

The deposits October 31, 1913, of the Worcester Savings Banks were 
as follows: 

Worcester County Institution for Savings .... $24,340,141.19 

People's Savings Bank 15,216,864.01 

Worcester Mechanics Savings Bank 13,984,798.52 

Worcester Five Cents Savings Bank 12,505,569.62 

Bay State Savings Bank 1,930,354.06 

Total $67,977,727.40 

153 




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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The monthly clearings of the local banks for 1913 were 
January 
February 
March 
April . 
May . 



June . 

July . 

August 

September 

October 

November 

December 



Total 

Co-operative bank assets: 
Total Assets of the Worcester Co-operative Bank 
Total assets of the Home Co-operative Bank 
Total assets of the Equity Co-operative Bank 
Total assets of the Independent Co-opera'ive Bank 



$12,035,934 
11,152,333 
11,472.016 
11,902,125 
11,335,874 
1 1 ,028,495 
11,701,125 
10,430,982 
10,451,959 
13,364.863 
10,452,657 
11,216.650 

$136,545,013 



$1,051,750.72 

1,041,596.51 

1,028,767.13 

22,000.00 



Grand total $3,144,114.36 

The above figures speak for themselves so far as Worcester's banking 
business is concerned. 

Worcester's Schools for Engineers 
and Mechanics 

WITH THE splendidly equipped Technical and Trade schools 
with which Worcester is provided, there seems no reason for 
pessimism in regard to the future supply of first-class mechanics 
to maintain the industrial supremacy of Central Massachusetts. That 
much ought to be assured, from what may be expected of the graduates from 
the Tech and the Worcester and Fitchburg Trade School plans. 

Worcester Polytechnic Institute 

THERE IS AN exceedingly close and intimate relationship existing 
between the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the Machine 
Shops of Worcester County. It is this: Those who have grad- 
uated from the Tech are now, very many of them, in the Worcester ma- 
chine shops, and those who are in the Tech now, will soon be graduating 
into the machine shops. In fact, quite a number of the grads are the 
owners of machine and electrical shops in this city, and the same is true of 
some who were professors on Boynton Hill. As has been stated, many of 
the young men who received their first real training in shop practice, 



155 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



mathematics, machine construction, materials, drawing, patternmaking, 
and the many component parts which go to make up an all-round engineer 
at the Tech, are now in charge of the great machine making factories of 
Worcester, and managing them with entire satisfaction and to the credit of 
their alma mater. 

The Worcester Polytechnic Institute was founded by John Boynton, 
of Templeton, a few miles from the Heart of the Commonwealth, the letter 
of gift declaring his intention being dated May 1, 1865. It was a gift of 
$100,000 in securities, and with that for a starter the Institute opened 
for business November 12, 1868. 

The Washburn Shops were founded by Ichabod Washburn in a letter 
of gift dated March 6, 1866. Mr. Washburn erected the original shop 
building and gave an endowment to the shops of $50,000. The group of 
buildings now consist of Boynton Hall, Washburn Shops, Power Labora- 
tory, Engineering Laboratories, Salisbury Laboratories (a gift of Stephen 
Salisbury), the Foundry, Electrical Engineering Laboratories, Magnetic 
Laboratories. The valuation of the buildings and land is about $587,000, 
the land being valued at about $125,000. The Hydraulic Testing Plant is 
situated at Chaffins, five miles distant. 

The buildings and land comprise 53 acres, six of which are to be 
devoted to the Alumni Athletic Field, now nearing completion. 

The Electrical engineering building is the largest devoted exclusively 
to electrical engineering to be found in any college. The school is one of 
the first of its class in the country, and it has kept pace with the tremen- 
dous progress made during the past quarter of a century in all matters 
pertaining to professional and technical education. In some respects it has 
been recognized as a leader, and its methods extensively copied. 

In a very broad and general sense engineering has been defined as 
"the application of practical science to man's material circumstances and 
means of action," but in a more common and technical sense it means the 
utilization of the forces of nature in the service and for the benefit of man, 
as illustrated in the construction and use of machinery, the erection and 
maintenance of structures and the discovery, decomposition and recom- 
position of the component parts of material things. To portions of the 
wide field thus described, the terms mechanical, civil, chemical and electri- 
cal engineering have been applied. Under each of these there is much 
opportunity for specializing. Mechanical engineering has been defined as 
that branch of engineering which relates strictly to machinery, such as 
steam engines, machine tools, millwork, etc., but it is evident that a 
mechanical engineer may restrict his field to any one of these, or to ma- 
chinery for the production and utilization of electricity. And so there 
are also sub-divisions of the other subjects. 

In the use of a workshop as furnishing an essential part of the training 
of the mechanical engineer, the Worcester Tech was the pioneer in the 
United States, and its facilities for this training, as embodied in the Wash- 
burn Shops, are probably more extensive than in any other. 

This institution was the first, as has been said, to establish these 



IS6 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



shops as an adjunct to the training of the engineer. They exist only that 
they may contribute to that training in the highest degree possible. 

The scope of this school's work is more comprehensive than in a few 
schools which are restricted to a single branch of engineering, and it is more 
limited than in others which attempt to include nearly every department of 
applied science. 

The courses are mechanical engineering, civil engineering, chemistry, 
general science, electrical engineering, all leading to the degree of Bachelor 
of Science and graduate courses in each department are offered, leading to 
the advance degrees of M. S., D. S., M. E., C. E., and E. E. 

Ira N. Hollis, formerly of Harvard, is President of the Institute, 
while the president of the Board of Trustees is Hon. Charles G Washburn, 
who is also connected with The Wire Goods Co. President Hollis is 
supported by a large and exceedingly capable faculty. 

The student body now numbers 535, of which the city of Worcester 
furnishes 1 10, the County of Worcester, 89, the State of Massachusetts, not 
including Worcester, 151 ; outside of Massachusetts, 174 and 1 1 foreign. 

The number of students which have been graduated is 1 ,657, of whom 
1 ,538 are still living. 

Of these graduates, 72 are either owners, part owners, or occupying 
executive positions in connection with shops of the National Metal 
Trades Association. Here is a list of some of the graduates of Worcester 
Polytechnic Institute: 

Charles G. Washburn, The Wire Goods Co., Worcester. 

Paul B. Morgan, Morgan Construction Co., Worcester. 

James N. Heald, Heald Machine Co., Worcester. 

Lyman F. Gordon, Wyman & Gordon Co., Worcester. 

William F. Cole, Baldwin Chain & Manufacturing Co., Worcester. 

Victor E. Edwards, Morgan Construction Co., Worcester. 

Aldus C. Higgins, Norton Co., Worcester. 

Albert J. Gifford, Leland-Gifford Co., Worcester. 

John W. Higgins, Worcester Pressed Steel Co., Worcester. 

Eugene A. Copeland, Hobbs Manufacturing Co., Worcester. 

Theodore H. Nye, Morgan Construction Co., Worcester. 

R. Sanford Riley, Norton Co., Worcester. 

Subbo Nikiloff, Leland-Gifford Co., Worcester. 

A. N. Goddard, Union Twist Drill Co., Athol. 

George S. McFarland, Wyman & Gordon Co., Worcester. 

Norman F. Holter, Norton Co., Worcester. 

George S. Holden, Eastern Bridge & Structural Co., Worcester. 

John C. Spence, Norton Grinding Co., Worcester. 

George G. Whitney, Heald Machine Co., Worcester. 

Clayton O. Smith, Norton Grinding Co., Worcester. 

H. P. Sawtell, Leland-Gifford Co., Worcester. 

Lester H. Carter, Baxter D. Whitney & Son, Winchendon. 

Edwin G. Chaffin, Norton Co., Worcester. 

157 




Iju 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Arthur A. Arnold, American Optical Co., Southbridge. 

Frank L. Putnam, Harrington Cutlery Co., Southbridge. 

Albert G. Belden, Norton Grinding Co., Worcester. 

Waldo J. Guild, Heald Machine Co., Worcester. 

Don A. Hamilton, Manning, Maxwell & Moore, New York. 

Charles E. Gillett, Norton Co., Worcester, 

William T. Donath, Leland-Gifford Co., Worcester. 

Paul R. Crooker, Norton Grinding Co., Worcester. 

George F. Martin, Eastern Bridge & Structural Co., Worcester. 

H. M. Carleton, Economic Machinery Co., Worcester. 

Edward M. Woodward, Jr., Woodward & Powell Planer Co., Worcester 

Edward H. Moore, Eastern Bridge & Structural Co., Worcester. 

Howard P. Chace, Norton Grinding Co., Worcester. 

C. W. Phillips, Heald Machine Co., Worcester. 

Ephraim Currier, Harrington & Richardson Arms Co., Worcester. 

Fred W. Eastman, Norton Grinding Co., Worcester. 

William W. Armour, Armour's Pattern Shop, Worcester. 

George H. Day, American Optical Co., Southbridge. 

W. C. Searle, Norton Grinding Co., Worcester. 

Willard T. Hatch, Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Co.. Providence. 

George H. Cushing, H. B. Smith Co., Westfield. 

W. W. Estes, General Fire Extinguisher Co., Providence. 

Harry N. Harding, Norton Grinding Co., Worcester. 

Fred D. Holdsworth, Sullivan Machinery Co., Claremont, N. H. 

John G. Aldrich, New England Butt Co., Providence. 

A. M. Powell, Fitchburg Machine Works, Fitchburg. 

T. S. Miller, Lidgerwood Manufacturing Co., New York. 

Roger B. Hubbell, Norton Grinding Co., Worcester. 

R. S. Squire, Stevens-Duryea Automobile Co., Chicopee Falls. 

James G. Goodell, General Fire Extinguisher Co., Providence. 

Alfred E. Rankin, Lidgerwood Manufacturing Co., New York. 

John W. McCaffrey, Taft-Pierce Manufacturing Co., Woonsocket. 

S. W. Sparrow, Stevens-Duryea Automobile Co., Chicopee Falls. 

Stanley P. Stewart, Stewart Boiler Works, Worcester. 

Howard E. Stowell, Carborundum Co., Niagara Falls, N. Y. 

C. W. Taft, Leland-Gifford Co., Worcester. 

Lester H. Greene, Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Co., Providence. 

James P. Hogan, Union Twist Drill Co., Athol. 

Waldo L. Sherman, Reed-Prentice Co., Worcester. 

James W. Armour, Armour's Pattern Shop, Worcester. 

Bryant F. Chapin, Norwood Engineering Co., Florence. 

Edgar F. Tierney, Builders Iron Foundry Co., Providence. 

Elmer S. Whittier, Sullivan Machinery Co., Claremont, N. H. 

Frank B. Knight, Chicago Office, Lidgerwood Mfg. Co., New York. 

Charles C. Brooks, Assistant Western Manager, Mead-Morrison Co., 

Boston. 
Charles H. Greenwood, The Carborundum Co., Niagara Falls, N. Y. 



159 




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DQ 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



William J. A. Rankin, Lidgerwood Mfg. Co., New York. 
Howard T. Walsh, Sullivan Machinery Co., Chicago. 
Elmer H. Fish, Worcester Trade School, Worcester. 

Worcester Trade School for Boys 

ONE OF THE live questions of the day is that of the recruiting of 
the skilled industries with workers. Operatives can be obtained 
in considerable numbers and their training on the job is not a 
difficult matter, but every shop must have a larger or smaller group of men 
possessed of mechanical skill and ingenuity. 

Worcester owes its existence primarily to such men. Without Wash- 
burn, Crompton, Wheeler, Hildreth, and many others of equal prominence, 
there might never have been a city in the Heart of the Commonwealth. 
For a great many years Worcester made its mechanics and asked no aid 
from outside. Then it gradually lapsed into the easy way of getting its 
skilled workmen from neighboring cities and later from abroad, until 
to-day the workman who served an apprenticeship in Worcester is nearly 
extinct. 

Some eight years ago a few men, led by Milton P. Higgins, who were 
vitally interested in this matter, both personally and in the interest of the 
city, set out to see what could be done to better conditions. Without 
going into details, the result is seen in the Boys' Trade School at Armory 
Square, and of equal importance in another direction, the Girls' School on 
State Street. 

The Worcester Boys' Trade School was one of the first Masschusetts 
Industrial Schools to open its doors and is now by far the largest in New 
England. It was authorized by city ordinance December 31, 1908, and the 
first building was opened to pupils February 9, 1910. Four years of 
growth shows a membership of 400 full time day pupils and nearly 800 men 
in the evening classes, of whom the latter are employed in local industries, 
but come to school in the evening to get further practical training in their 
trades. In this respect this school differs from many of the evening schools 
in other cities. There the evening work is largely book work in the allied 
sciences which is apt to educate the mechanic away from his trade rather 
than to build him up in it. In this school it has been found possible to secure 
as instructors men who are known in the local shops as leaders in their 
respective trades and who train their men on actual work and along lines 
which they find it difficult to get opportunity to practice where they are 
employed. For example, a man whose work in the shop is exclusively on 
a lathe may see an opportunity for a better job if he can learn to run a 
planer or a shaper. If so, he can get training and experience evenings in 
the trade school shops on the most modern machine tools. 

The day pupils are learning these trades of machinist, pattern maker, 
cabinetmaker, carpenter, power plant operator, drawing, both mechanical 
and for the building trades, and printing, all of the courses being four years 
in length. 
II l6l 




XGf^M 5^± 2dH I 2XA/3S3JJd3ii RoTeTTTTcL T0S3 



a 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The machine shop is exceptionally well equipped with lathes, planers, 
shapers, millers, grinders, etc., of the best makes. Much of this equipment 
has been obtained by exchange with prominent machine tool builders in all 
parts of the country. It has been paid for in work done by the pupils, who 
have made large quantities of gears, tool posts, shafts, mandrels, arbors, 
etc. This is an especially valuable way of getting both equipment and work 
because it affords an outlet for the product which does not disturb the labor 
market, it makes it possible to keep the equipment up to date and it makes 
certain that the work will be kept up to the commercial standard. 

Wood working is practiced along the lines of carpentry, cabi- 
net making and pattern making. The equipment is only second 
to that in the Machine shop. Hand work enters into all of these 
trades to a larger extent than in machine work, but even with 
that handicap the boys do some of the most excellent work, as is evidenced 
by the fine quartered work panelling in the corridor and office of the new 
building. 

The boys in the power plant department have done all the piping for 
the heating of the new building and all of the electric wiring for the light 
and power. They have also rebuilt a number of steam and gasoline engines 
for use in the school laboratories. 

The division of studies is shown by the accompanying diagram which 
indicates the average time each week, including study, that is given to each 
subject. 

To briefly review these studies it may be said that "shop computations, 
formulas, geometry and study of triangles" comprise work in the application 
of only a few very simple mathematical processes to actual shop conditions. 
The work is very largely drill in practical problems, several thousand such 
problems having already been gathered. Commercial arithmetic and com- 
mercial geography deal with the transportation, purchase and sale of mate- 
rials and products. The study of geography is made directly from way bills 
loaned by the railroads. 

Natural science deals with the problems in mechanics, hydraulics and 
electricity with which the workman in a shop may expect to come in contact. 

The cultural side of the boys' education is provided for in the work in 
English, history of commerce and invention, and good citizenship, though 
even in these subjects use is made of the practical application of each study 
so far as possible. In English, shop reports are made of each week's shop 
work which are criticised by a shop man, and a portion of their reading is 
taken from the technical papers of their trade. The history of commerce 
and invention is directed largely toward the rousing of the ambition of the 
young man by showing him the successes that have been made in the past 
by shop trained men. Good citizenship is based largely on the experiences 
of the boy in the shop, and is made to grow out into the relations of the shop 
to the economics and government of the outside world. 

Drawing is taught from the start by the methods prevailing in drafting 
rooms and is intended to give the pupil, not skill as a draftsman, but facility 
in sketching and in reading drawings. Drawings for use in the shop are 



163 



Worce ster, City of Prosperity 

made in the drafting room by pupils who are either scheduled for shop work 
or shop instruction. 1 1 is intended that drawings shall be made by one boy, 
checked by another and used by others, in order that their inaccuracies may 
be brought forcibly to the attention of the draftsman. 

Since October 1910, the school has been open to pupils on the halt 
time plan. The regular schedule of the school sends each pupil into its 
shops for a full week and then the next week into its school rooms During 
this time other boys alternate with this first division so that the shops and 
schools are full all the time. The half time pupils take exactly the same 
course as the full time pupils except that they go to outside shops, which pay 
them apprentice wages, to get their shop training. This course has been 
open for upward of three years not only to boys newly entering the school 
but to all the boys in the school. There has never been a time but that 
boys could be readily placed in shops on this plan, nevertheless there have 
been very few pupils who desired to take advantage of the opportunity 
The largest number at any one time has been nine, the smallest three. At 
the same time that half time class was opened, a continuationclass was begun 
for apprentices. This class meets Saturday mornings from 8 to 1 2, when 
the pupils are given instruction in drawing, or if desirable English and 
mathematics and science, or they are taken into the school shops and given 
instruction in the operation of specific machines. This class fluctuates, 
between 1 5 and 30 apprentices having taken advantage of it 

The only requisite for admission to either class is that the pupil must 
be over 1 4 years of age and be vouched for by his employer. 

Twenty-six boys, the first class, were graduated in June, 1913 lney 
were immediately placed at an average wage of $2.25 per day. many of them 
in shops where they had worked previous summers. For the most part 
they have remained in Worcester, only two having gone out of the city even 

through the slack times. ,.,,,, a „ ot 

The buildings and equipment have been furnished by the city the cost 
of maintenance is shared equally by the city and state The buildings, 
equipment and stock in hand, inventory $225,000 of which $25^000 repre- 
sents gl fts toward the building fund from the estate of M ton R Higgin. 
$3,000 supplementary gifts from other citizens, and about $25,000 from the 

work of the pupils. . , 

The school has at all times stood for practice along strictly commercial 
lines on the score that the most important thing in industnal education « 
that the pupil shall be taught to do work in a way and of a quality that will 
be accepted when he graduates. It has been found entirely possible by 
careful instruction to turn out work which is accepted gladly by some of he 
best known shops in the country. If the school has shown one thing it is 
that trades can be taught more efficiently in a school organized for that pur- 
pose than in shops organized for profit where the foreman s first duty is to 
get work out of men rather than to get training into them. 

On the other hand, there is no neglect of the boy as a citizen and a mem- 
ber of the community. All of a high school education that makes for gener- 
ally useful all around development is retained. Mathematics, science. 

164 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



English, history of commerce and invention, civics, drawing, all have their 
place in order that the graduate may have a broadening outlook on the 
world. 

Louis H. Buckley succeeded Milton P. Higgins as president of the 
board of trustees, and Elmer H. Fish has been director of the school since 
the beginning, in 1909. 

Fitchburg Plan of Co-operative Education 

A SPLENDID plan of co-operative work, fashioned after that 
adopted by the University of Cincinnati, led by Professor Herman 
Schneider, for the benefit of the young men of Fitchburg, was 
inaugurated six years ago by the members of the Worcester Branch, 
National Metal Trades Association, who are located in Fitchburg. 

Dean Schneider was one of the speakers at the Annual Convention of 
the National Metal Trades Association in Hotel Astor in April, 1908. He 
related in stirring words the splendid work being accomplished by the 
University of Cincinnati in conjunction with the young men and the 
employers in the metal trades lines of that city. Among those present at 
the convention as a member of the Worcester Branch was the late Daniel 
Simonds, of Fitchburg. He realized that there was an opportunity for the 
young men of Fitchburg to acquire an academic and mechanical training 
at the same time through the agency of the Fitchburg High School. 
Along with his associates in the metal trades lines in his city, working with 
the school committee, the matter was considered on his return from the 
convention. Everybody in Fitchburg was as enthusiastic as Mr. Simonds, 
and by August I , the same year, the plan was fully launched, under the 
superintendency of W. B. Hunter. 

The scheme, as stated, provided an opportunity for learning a trade 
and obtaining an education at the same time. This is accomplished by 
spending alternate weeks in the shops of the city and the high school as 
an apprentice in the following trades: Machinist, pattern making, saw- 
making, drafting, iron molding, tinsmithing, piping, printing, textile and 
office work, at the works of the Bath Grinder Co., Blake Pump & Con- 
denser Co., Brown Engine Co., C. H. Cowdrey Machine Works, H. M. 
Downs Printing Co., L. H. Goodnow Iron Foundry, The Jennison Co., 
Fitchburg Machine Works, Fitchburg Steam Engine Co., Grant Yarn Co., 
G. M. Parks Co., Parkhill Manufacturing Co., Putnam Machine Works, 
and the Simonds Manufacturing Co. 

The course is of four years' duration, the same as the regular high 
school course. The first year the pupils spend wholly in school and the 
next three years alternate weekly between shop and school. A trial period 
of two months, beginning at the end of the first school year, is given each 
candidate to see if he is adapted to the particular trade he elects, and his 
parents sign an agreement whereby the apprentice agrees to complete the 
full course; and the manufacturer, on his part, agrees to teach him the 
rudiments of the trade as designated in this agreement. 

165 




?■'' 




Daniel Simonds 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Allotment to the various shops is made in June by the director of the 
course, and, as far as possible, the desires of the boy as to the shop he pre- 
fers are met. 

Wages are paid for shop work at the following rates: First year, 10 
cents an hour; second year, II cents an hour; third year, 12/2 cents an 
hour; making a total of approximately $550 for the three years of shop work. 

The class is now on its sixth year, having graduated three classes, 
numbering 50 pupils. 

The Fitchburg Plan contemplates taking care of any trade or voca- 
tion that the community offers for boys or girls to work at. It is planned 
to take up the building trades, agriculture and women's occupations just 
as soon as the demand for them is made. 

This, then, is the Fitchburg Plan of Industrial Education, the first 
public school idea in the country to really care for the needs of the mechanic 
and furnish him with such an equipment that on graduation from the high 
school he is a bread winner, with a place in the ranks of the world's busy 
workers. 

As an illustration of the class of work given the boys, the shop course 
of six of the trades, together with a suggestion of the school work corre- 
lated, is given below: 

Machinist Trade 

Shop Work — Starting, running, cutting off machines; chipping or 
rough filing castings; tapping, hand reaming and burring; rough lathe work, 
turning stock oversize for finisher or grinder, boring, polishing and hand 
milling; lathe practice with increased accuracy, using micrometers, taper 
turning, thread cutting; drill press, laying out holes, use of jigs, tapping, 
reaming, lapping, planer or shaper — methods of strapping work on table, 
rough planing finishing, taper work; grinding of tools — planer, lathe, drill — 
both by hand and machine; grinding machine operation, external and 
internal work, wet and dry, use of magnetic chuck; setting up, floor work, 
fitting parts, fitting keys; milling machines — plain milling, form cutters, 
indexing, iron and steel parts, jigs and fixtures; boring mill, drafting room. 
In shop work use blueprints for directions. 

Correlated School Work — Complete analysis of shop tools and opera- 
tions; freehand sketching with dimensions from machine parts, followed 
by mechanical drafting of same, throughout the four years of the course; 
shop figuring, gearing, screw cutting, speeds, feeds, belting, chain drive; 
properties and chemistry of metals; steam engines; physics, elementary 
applied mechanics; electrical drive and apparatus; English, description of 
shop processes and machinery; precision measurements and instruments; 
geometry and trigonometry used in shop work. 



167 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Let me but do my work from day to day 
In field or forest, at the desk or loom, 
In roaring market place or tranquil room; 

Let me but find it in my heart to say, 

When vagrant wishes beckon me astray, 
"This is my work; my blessing, not my doom. 
Of all who live, I am the only one by whom 

This work can best be done in the right way." 

— Henry Van Dy\e 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Draftsman 

Shop Work — Tracing, blue printing, lettering, detailing, simple de- 
sign from foreman's sketches, changes, measuring shop tools for altera- 
tions, jig design. 

Correlated School Work — Drawing and free-hand sketching, drawing 
room procedure: methods of representation, strength of materials, prop- 
erties and chemistry of metals; English, descriptive work and processes; 
analysis of shop tools; pattern making; chemistry and physics, same as 
machinist; geometry and trigonometry to solve gearing and stress prob- 
lems. 

Molding Trade 

Shop Work — Mixing sand; coremaking, heat ovens; helping floor 
molders, ramming molds, pouring light parts, molding simple pieces, in- 
creasing in complexity. 

Correlated School Work — Chemistry of iron, chemistry of sands, 
physics; shop tools and operations; core ovens and making, venting, 
gases, mathematics. 

Patternmaking Trade 

Shop Work — Kinds of stock; use of saws, planers, sanding, gearing, 
lathes; turning, chuck work; solid work; built up patterns; loose pieces; 
core prints and boxes, pulleys and gears; working from blueprints. 

Correlated School Work — Drafting, gearing, mathematics; machine 
shop and molding processes; cutting tools, saws, planers, properties of 
wood, "draft," fillets; chemistry of iron, glue; physics, same as machinist. 



Sawmaking Trade 



Shop Work — Gauging stock; punching and reaming arbor holes; 
grinding to thickness and clearance; hammering to clear lumps and 
straighten stock; hammering after hardening for tension according to use 
of saw; blocking or final finish. 

Correlated School Studies — Properties of steel; chemistry and physics 
as for machinists; hardening and tempering processes; precision meas- 
urements. 

Sheet-Metal Trade 

Shop Work — Helping journeyman; cutting off stock; bending and 
crimping; soldering and hammering; sheet iron, steel, copper work; mak- 
ing ventilators, cornice work and odd jobs; laying out sketch as design 
of ventilators. 

Correlated School Studies — Sheet-metal drafting; iron and steel 
properties; chemistry of metals, solders, gas appliances; physics, mechan- 
ics; practical geometry; heating and ventilating; cutting tools. 

169 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester Trade School for Girls 

THE TRADE SCHOOL for Girls in Worcester was opened Septem- 
ber 20, 191 I, with an enrollment of 75 girls. The first director was 
Miss Cleo Murtland, a former instructor in the Manhattan Trade 
School for Girls in New York. Under her supervision the equipment was 
selected, repairs to Newton Hall, the old Wetherell estate, which was leased 
for five years, carried out, and the curriculum outlined. She arrived in 
Worcester in July and interviewed prospective pupils and their mothers. 

Much of the furniture such as desks, tables, chairs, etc., was made 
at the Boys' Trade School and these have been added to with the growth 
of the school. 

The Trade School for Girls was designed specially to prepare girls 
to fill positions in the various manufacturing plants and stores of Wor- 
cester. It is not a copy of any other school, but a training school to turn 
out expert workers in various trades, thus giving the pupils a solid founda- 
tion from which to advance to prominent positions which they could only 
reach under great handicaps if picking up the trade with no individual 
teaching in the shops and factories. 

The trade courses are plain sewing, by hand and machine, fine sewing 
and embroidery, plain dressmaking, advanced dressmaking, making of 
fancy afternoon and evening gowns of silk and lace, broadcloth, chiffon, 
voile. 

Millinery making of wire and buckram frames, making of bandeaux, 

folds, bindings, making fancy trimming and novelties, and the trimming 
of hats. 

Electric power — machine operating, special machine work, button- 
hole machine, use of two needle gauge, machine for corset work, use of 
knife tucker. 

Academic work — so that girls may be proficient in arithmetic, Eng- 
lish, geography, and spelling for successful trade work. They are instructed 
in the knowledge of textiles, and writing, business forms and composition; 
study of weaves, qualities, adulterations; industrial history and geography 
as related to women's work; apportionment of income, expenditure. 

Art Course — applied design, costume designing, designing of hats. 

Cooking Course — buying, preparing, serving of food for the school 
luncheon, planning simple menus, canning and preserving, elementary 
food chemistry. 

Besides these courses there are taught light gymnastics, dancing, 
personal hygiene, care of the eyes, teeth, the throat and ears, and also 
corrective exercises are given. 

The conditions for admission in brief are that the girl be 1 4 or over, 
in good physical condition and can show an aptitude for handiwork. Girls 
who have completed the work in the grammar school are admitted in full 
standing; those who have not, have to take a course of a month to show 
an ability to use intelligently the academic branches. The present teacher 
is Miss Helen R. Hildreth. 

171 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester's Higher Institutions 
.earning 



of L 



Clark University 



JONAS G. CLARK, after whom Clark University and College are 
named, endowed these institutions to the extent of $4,000,000. A 
provision was made in that amount that a University Library should 
be established, and he bequeathed it $800,000. It is regarded as one of 
the best endowed university libraries in the United States. There are 
66,000 volumes on the library shelves and this number is increasing annu- 
ally at the rate of 4,000 in addition to 450 periodicals. The University Li- 
brary is particularly strong along scientific lines. 

The University was opened in 1889 with Dr. Granville Stanley Hall 
as president and he fills that chair at the present time. The first step 
towards the realization of his long formed plans was for Mr. Clark to invite 
the following gentlemen to constitute a board of trustees: Hon. Stephen 
Salisbury, Major-General Charles Devens, Hon. George Frisbie Hoar, 
Hon. William W. Rice, Dr. Joseph Sargent, Hon. John D. Washburn, 
Frank P. Goulding and George Swan. This board of trustees was incor- 
porated in March 1 887. 

During the previous five years Mr. Clark had gradually acquired a 
tract of land comprising about eight acres, located on Main Street, a mile 
and a half from the heart of the city. Plans for the main building were 
submitted to the board by Mr. Clark, which were approved and its erection 
was at once begun. The cornerstone was laid with impressive ceremonies 
October 22, 1887. This building is 204 x 114 feet, four stories high and 
five in the centre, constructed of brick and granite and furnished through- 
out in oak. It contains 90 rooms; a clock with a six foot dial in its tower, 
presented by citizens of Worcester. 

The letter inviting Dr. Hall to be the first president April 3, 1888, 
gave expression to the spirit animating the trustees as to the purpose of 
the University: 

"They desire to impose upon you no trammels; they have no 
friends to provide for at the expense of the interests of the insti- 
tution, no pet theories to press upon you in derogation of your 
judgment, no sectarian tests to apply, no guarantees to require, 
save such as are implied by your acceptance of this trust. Their 
single desire is to fit men for the highest duties of life and to 
that end, that this institution in whatever branches of sound 
learning it may find itself engaged, may be a leader and a light. " 

173 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The invitation was accepted May 1 , and the president was at once 
granted one year's leave of absence with full salary to visit the Universi- 
ties of Europe. On that trip he sought information from every source. 
Books, reports, and building plans of many kinds were gathered. Ministers 
of education, heads of universities and leading scientific men were visited. 
During his absence, the chemical laboratory building on the corner of 
Maywood and Woodland streets was erected from plans by a young 
engineer under Mr. Clark's direction. 

At the opening exercises of the University, October 2, 1889, the founder 
stated his purpose. The exercises were held in the hall of the University, 
seating 1 ,500 people, the late General Devens presiding. Its chief purpose 
is original research and it has given to the world much valuable knowledge 
as the fruits of the work of man specialists. The leading consideration in 
all engagements, reappointments and promotions has always been the 
quality and quantity of successful investigation. That has given the work 
a unique character, and as the work was of such magnitude and impor- 
tance, Mr. Clark urged the president, trustees and faculty to go slow. 

But for the founder who could not understand these ideals and who gave 
no intimation of his real wealth, with a faculty of very earnest and very 
ambitious scientists, with an income that did not cover the salary list, 
serious difficulties and misunderstandings were inevitable. 

Dr. Hall realized that the splendid opportunity was jeopardized by 
this over caution of the founder. In a report he said: "Perhaps none of 
us will ever again see an opportunity so precious and, for a movement 
in the field of highest education in this country, of great historic and 
national significance. While, however, we must go slowly, we cannot 
afford to go too slowly. The present opportunity is without precedent 
in our educational history." 

Lack of frankness and lack of funds brought about strained relations 
between founder, president and faculty which culminated in the resigna- 
tion of a number of the latter in the summer of 1892. 

Every member of the staff of 1892 stuck to his post in spite of offers, in 
many cases of more lucrative positions elsewhere, for the next 21 years, 
when Dr. Clifton F. Hodge, professor of biology, broke the tradition by 
resigning to enter a larger field of work in the state of Oregon. 

With the increased resources since the death of the founder and his 
wife, the University has grown. The department of chemistry has been 
reopened. Departments in history, economics and philosophy were added. 
Two new buildings have been erected. Degrees conferred by the Uni- 
versity are Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. 

The University now consists of four buildings. Of the two main 
buildings the principal one is where the classrooms and offices are situated, 
and theother the laboratories for the teaching of physics and chemistry. These 
two buildings cost $350,000 while the two library buildings cost $225,000 
additional, making a total in buildings alone of $575,000. 

The librarian is Dr. Louis N. Wilson. He has filled that position for 
25 years most acceptably. This splendid service to Clark was suitably 



174 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



celebrated and recognized a few weeks ago by the faculty and student body 
of the University and College. 

Jonas Gilman Clark 

Jonas Gilman Clark, founder of Clark University, was born in Hub- 
bardston, February 1, 1815, and died at his beautiful home on Elm Street, 
Worcester, May 2, 1900, at the age of 85. He worked on his father's farm 
until he was 16, attending the country school for a few weeks each year. 

In 1831 he began to learn the carriagemaker's trade and set up on 
his own account when he came of age. In 1845 he established a shop for 
the manufacture of tinware, opening stores, later in Lowell and Milford, 
adding hardware and building material to the stock. 

In 1853 he went to California shipping from the East provisions, 
furniture, miners' supplies and farming tools. 

In 1856 his business had resolved itself entirely to furniture, of which 
he supplied the larger part of the wholesale market of the Pacific Coast 
for four years. In I860, being in poor health, he sold out his business, in- 
vested his money in land and left for Europe. 

Returning to San Francisco he took an active part in founding the 
California Council of the Union League of America holding the office of 
grand treasurer until he removed to New York, May, 1864. 

Retiring from business at the age of 45, Mr. Clark devoted his leisure 
to intercourse with men, travel and books. His interest in education 
began in his love for books so that his library may be said to represent the 
early stage of his first idea of a university. It is certain that in his later 
years as a book buyer, he was under the firm impression that he was collect- 
ing a library that would be invaluable to the university he contemplated 
founding, and it was a keen disappointment to him when he slowly learned 
in the first stages of its development, that a university library was entirely 
different from, and far larger than his conception of it. To see his care- 
fully gathered collection of books and magazines outnumbered four times 
over by modern scientific works in a single year brought a new experience 
for which he was not prepared. 

However, Mr. Clark's ideas and ideals grew with the growth of the 
University and at his death he left one-quarter of his estate for the endow- 
ment of the library, thus placing it among the very few well endowed 
university libraries in the country. 

Dr. Granville Stanley Hall 

The name of Dr. G. Stanley Hall is associated in educational centres 
the world over with child study, and the history of his life goes to show 
that his training, even from the evenings about the home hearth, tended 
to that consummation. His mother, Abigail (Beals) Hall, educated at the 
Albany Female Seminary, left it with a decided literary trend. When the 
son decided to go to college, the father, although as ambitious as the mother, 

175 




Alonzo Whitcomb 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



was sadly grieved because he had added to his farm and felt that it would 
be a heavy loss if the son went away. The mother encouraged the idea, as 
it was her dearest wish that her son should enter the ministry. The 
father's opposition was finally overcome, and the lad was sent to Williston 
Seminary at Easthampton to prepare for college. When this decision was 
made known there were the usual village gossips who declared that "Stan " 
was going to college because he was "too durned lazy to work on the 
farm." They decided the father and mother were "stuck up," they were 
"come-outers" because they had tried to give themselves an education 
and, failing in that, they were ready to make foolish sacrifices for their 
children. 

Granville Stanley Hall was born on the first of February, 1846, in 
Ashfield, Franklin County, this state. The Hall family is of old New 
England stock; the father, Granville Bascom Hall, was a descendant in 
the eighth generation of Elder William Brewster, who came over in the 
Mayflower in 1620 with his wife and two sons. Other ancestors were: 
John Hall, who came from Coventry, England, in 1630, in a fleet with 
Governor Winthrop, and settled in Charlestown; John Lillie, born in 1592, 
who also came over in the Mayflower; James Gorham, born in England 
in 1550; Richard Willard and Richard Sears. 

The mother, Abigail Beals Hall, was a descendant in the seventh 
generation of the famous John Alden, one of the signers of the Mayflower 
compact. 

The Ashfield Halls were substantial, hard working, comfortable, 
common-sense farmers without much ambition or much education, of 
great physical vigor, and some of them remarkable for longevity, one of 
them dying a few years ago lacking but a few months of 99 years of age. 

The Beals were also of the farming class, but were noted for mechan- 
ical traits and piety. From all evidence, it would seem that Dr. Hall's 
parents were more anxious for an education than other members of their 
families. Mrs. Hall applied to Mt. Holyoke Seminary, but was not ad- 
mitted, as it was full. The children seem to have inherited their love of 
learning from their mother. 

In Dr. Hall's "Notes on Early Memories" he tells of living part of 
his time with his parents, part with his grandparents, uncles and aunts. 
He attended school and academy three-fourths of the year, earning an 
accordion by braiding palm leaf hats in the evenings one winter, earning 
a pair of skates by reading the Bible through for one of his aunts, and 
working hard in the fields, digging post holes for fences, haying, harvest- 
ing, keeping cattle, etc. It was a busy life, yet there were diversions in 
the way of hunting, fishing, skating, tramping and camping-out, Indian 
fashion, with bow and arrows. 

In the long winter evenings there was always reading aloud, novels, 
the Spectator, Shakespeare, Pilgrim's Progress, Clark's Sermons, Baxter's 
Call, Bunyan's Holy War and, best loved of all, the Arabian Nights. There 
were spelling schools and debating societies where the parents took part, 
and when he was about 14 he and his father were pitted against each other. 

12 177 




George W. Wells 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



A neighbor, to tease the father, said in his hearing, "Stan beat his dad," 
which seemed to trouble the father at the time. 

The father taught his two boys to play the violin. He gave his chil- 
dren lessons in oratory, placing the feet, directing the gestures, the mother 
acting as a committee on decisions. When Stanley was I I years old his 
father was elected to the State Legislature, and the letters he sent home 
were read aloud and discussed. Each member of the family kept a little 
journal which was read aloud Saturday nights. They also conducted a 
manuscript paper, the "Cottage Weekly News," his sister Julina being the 
editor. The mother saw to it that the minor graces were not neglected, 
and taught them how to enter a room, to greet people, to pass a book, to 
pick up a handkerchief, to salute people on the street. 

Legendary lore, fairy tales and allegorical stories were acted out 
among the trees, shrubs and rocks on the farm, all of which was a good 
foundation for the real education which followed. 

Young Hall often went with a chum, Horace Mann to hear Henry 
Ward Beecher. It was he who advised him, upon hearing that he was more 
interested in philosophy then in theology, to go to Germany. He also 
gave him a letter of introduction to Henry W. Sage, who loaned him at 
interest, payable at his convenience, $500. He entered the University of 
Bonn, later the University of Berlin. He served as a war correspondent 
for American newspapers during the Franco-Prussian War, and at various 
periods taught a district school, tutored in families, and even supplied 
pulpits. He entered the Union Theological Seminary and in a few months 
took his B D. degree. He took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at 
Harvard, and, having saved some money at teaching during six years, he 
made a second trip to Berlin. It was while attending the University of 
Berlin that he renewed acquaintance with Miss Cornelia Fisher, and they 
were married there, keeping house during the academic year at Leipzig. 

Dr. Hall's first professorship was in 1872, at Antioch College, at Yellow 
Springs, Ohio. He later accepted a tutorship at Harvard. He also lec- 
tured there and at Johns Hopkins, the ideals of which appealed so strongly 
to him that they are largely embodied in those of Clark University, the 
presidency of which he accepted May 1, 1888. 



Clark College 



CLARK COLLEGE was established in 1902 under the will of the 
late Jonas G. Clark, in the belief that by careful economy of time 
the average student could lessen the length of his college course 
without materially affecting his real preparation for his life work. In 
accordance, therefore, with the will of the founder, the College offers to 
young men a regular three year course, leading in all departments to the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts. In this respect the College is entirely unique, 
in that it gives its courses in three years instead of four, as is the custom in 
most colleges. It is equally unique in its tuition fees, which are only $50 

179 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



annually, without any extras, certainly very much lower than the rates of 
any other college in New England. 

Several conditions have aided in the success of the plan at Clark. 
The College started under unusually favorable conditions. Its sister 
institution, Clark University, was already in existence and had obtained 
an international reputation. There were no traditions to interfere with the 
planning of its curriculum, the creation of an atmosphere of earnest work 
and the enforcement of its standards of conduct. An endowment sufficient 
for its needs in the days of its infancy freed it from the temptation to accept 
or retain students for the sake of their tuition fees. The College has from 
the first been fortunate in having a faculty large in proportion to the num- 
ber of students, so that each may have the advantage of the closest contact 
with his instructors. The students are free from the distractions accom- 
panying intercollegiate athletic contests, and are thus enabled to concen- 
trate their energies upon the work of the curriculum. 

Clark College is well equipped both materially and in its personnel, 
and commends itself to earnest young men who wish to economize in either 
time or money. The regular three year course gives a maximum training 
in a minimum time, and the small expense reduces the financial problem 
to its lowest terms. As these facts have become known, the College has 
drawn more and more widely from the earnest and serious minded students 
of the academies and high schools of Massachusetts and neighboring states. 

The College shares with the University in the generous library endow- 
ment provided by the will of the founder. The University Library occupies 
a building on the corner of Downing and Main streets, and the College 
Library occupies the whole first floor of the adjoining building. This new 
building was made possible by a bequest from Mrs. Jonas G. Clark. The 
College Library now contains about 12,000 volumes, with shelving capacity 
for 3,000 more. It is fully equipped with all the material necessary for 
undergraduate courses. The students have free access also to the adjoin- 
ing University Library. The two libraries are under one management and 
derive their income from one fund, but it has been the desire from the first 
to give the College Library its own quarters, devoted entirely to the needs 
of the College student. 

The tuition of the College has been fixed by the Board of Trustees at 
$50 per year, payable in advance in two equal installments, unless otherwise 
arranged. 

President Carroll D. Wright's first class in the Collegiate Department 
of Clark University was graduated in 1905, and the occasion was honored 
by the presence of President Theodore Roosevelt, on whom Clark Univer- 
sity conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. 

The regular courses of instruction in the College are comprised in the 
following 14 departments: 

Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Political and 
Social Science, Psychology, Philosophy and Pedagogy, English, German, 
Romance Languages, Greek, Latin and Physical Education. 

Edmund C. Sanford is president of Clark College, succeeding the late 
Carroll D. Wright. 

180 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester Academy 



WORCESTER ACADEMY began its history as a trade or indus- 
trial school and out of that humble beginning has evolved one 
of the best preparatory schools in the country. This has been 
largely accomplished under the able direction of the principal, Daniel W. 
Abercrombie, LL. D., who has been at its head for 32 years. One of the 
first of several principals for short tenures was Eli Thayer, the founder 
of the Oread Institute. 

After Dr. Abercrombie took charge the name was changed from the 
Worcester County Manual Labor High School to the Worcester Acad- 
emy. In the very early days of the Academy, even previous to the Manual 
Labor High School period, about 1858, it was a female seminary and later 
was used as a hospital under the name, Dale Hospital. It was bought and 
occupied by the Worcester Academy in 1870, with Rev. Silas Bailey as 
its first principal. 

The academy was first located on Main Street, not far from the 
present Piedmont Church and was founded in 1843. After several years 
it changed its location to the old Antiquarian Building on Summer Street, 
near Lincoln Square. 

The Academy is the fourth in point of numbers among the great 
secondary schools of New England. At the present time there are 300 
pupils enrolled. The total number graduated is between 1 ,200 and 1 ,500 
and about 50 are added to that each year. 

There are three courses of study: a Classical, a Latin Scientific, and a 
Scientific, and these are designed to fit the student for any institution of 
higher grade he wishes to enter. It cannot be spoken of as a fitting school 
for any particular college. From the classes of 1910 and 191 1, 80 gradu- 
ates entered 18 different colleges and technical schools. It, however, 
patronizes home industries by sending more of its students to the Wor- 
cester Polytechnic Institute than any other single school or college. One 
of the strongest elements in the vitality of the academy is the breadth of 
its training and its democratic spirit. The private secondary school 
exists primarily to fit boys for college, but in many schools this aim is 
limited to fitting boys for one particular college. In such case the breadth 
of training is in danger of being limited by the requirements for entrance 
of that particular college. 

Another contributory feature to the great success of the Worcester 
Academy is its athletics. There are football teams, both of the American 
and soccer varieties, hockey, baseball, tennis and basketball. The new 
athletic field^Gaskill Field, named in honor of the late Judge Francis A. 
Gaskill, third president of the board of trustees, is the best of its kind in 
New England. It contains two baseball fields, a football field, a quarter- 
mile track with 220 yards straight-away, three tennis courts and a field 
house, a building made of cement with red Spanish tile roof, containing 
separate dressing rooms and shower baths for home and visiting teams. 

181 




American Optical Co., Southbridge, Mass. 

President, Charming M. Wells Treasurer, Albert B. Wells 

Vice-President and Secretary, J. Cheney Wells 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Gaskill Field has been the battleground of many a well-contested inter- 
school competition. 

In 1898, the Kingsley laboratory was erected at a cost of $90,000 to 
keep pace with the increasing emphasis on scientific and practical sub- 
jects. This building is unequalled in any secondary school in the degree 
to which its equipment meets every need for the adequate teaching of 
natural science, drafting and manual training. As a result, students pre- 
paring for technical schools have been attracted to the Academy. Courses 
in pattern-making and casting are added to carpentry and wood-turning, 
thus anticipating in still larger measure the requirements of the technical 
schools. 

Its alumni are found in 41 states and 5 foreign countries. Directly 
through its own expenditures and indirectly through the money spent by 
its students, the Academy brings $200,000 annually into the channels of 
trade in this city. It is the oldest of Worcester's higher educational 
institutions. There are 1,100 living graduates. 

Gaskill Field cost $70,000 and consists of 10 acres. There are three 
dormitory buildings, and besides Kingsley Hall there is Walker Hall, 
while Adams Hall is the dining hall, the megaron, gymnasium with swim- 
ming pool. 

The president of the board of trustees is Paul B. Morgan, of the Mor- 
gan Construction Company; the secretary is George Crompton, of the 
Reed-Prentice Company, and Lyman F. Gordon, of Wyman & Gordon, is 
also a trustee. The faculty consists of 19 men. 



The Bancroft School 



THE BANCROFT SCHOOL was organized September, 1900, by 
the present headmaster, Frank H. Robson, who has been in charge 
of the school since its organization. The school was incorporated 
in 1902, land was bought at I I I Elm Street, and the present building was 
erected. 

The aim of the school has been threefold: first, to secure teachers 
of ability, culture and a large personal influence; second, to provide a build- 
ing with the best hygienic conditions; third, to develop a broad curricu- 
lum. In accordance with the foregoing, the school provides training from 
kindergarten to college entrance. Its graduates have entered most of the 
leading colleges for men and women. Beginning with September, 1913, 
only girls were admitted to the high school department, while both boys 
and girls were admitted to the elementary school. The school has grown 
so that at the present time it is the largest private day school in New Eng- 
land outside of Boston. The faculty is now composed of 1 3 teachers. 



183 




S £ 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Oread Castle 

ON AN EMINENCE once known as Goat Hill, half mile south from 
City Hall, may be seen a battlement of buildings known as Oread 
Castle. It was opened May 14, 1849, as the Oread Collegiate In- 
stitute for Women. Its life began when no college except Oberlin opened 
its doors to women, a quarter of a century before Mount Holyoke became 
a college and when there was yet no Vassar, nor Wellesley, nor Bryn Mawr, 
nor Smith to furnish the higher education to women which the times were 
then beginning to demand. 

Mount Oread, as it was afterwards called, rose unexpectedly out of 
its barren and rocky eminence a unique building like a veritable old castle, 
with its grey walls and turret towers. 

In 1845, Eli Thayer, the founder of the school, purchased a tract of 
land on Goat Hill, a rocky eminence on what was then the suburbs of 
Worcester. By subsequent purchase, he enlarged this until it was a field 
of 10 acres, including the lot on which Piedmont Church now stands. 
For the school buildings, Mr. Thayer was his own architect and during 
the earlier period of construction he kept his townsmen guessing as to the 
purpose of the building. How little Mr. Thayer took outsiders into his 
confidence or how little he sought the advice and support of others is 
shown by the fact that his intention to erect a young ladies' school on the 
summit of the hill he had bought was not disclosed until a part of the struc- 
ture was nearly completed. 

Mr. Thayer's original plan was a building resembling a feudal castle 
of the middle ages in the form of a quadrangle with an inner court 1 70 
feet square. Circular towers 50 feet in diameter and four stories high were 
to be placed at the four corners. These were to be connected by four halls 
each four stories high and 40 feet deep, the whole to be used for dormitories, 
recitation, lecture, dining and reception rooms. The building was designed 
to accommodate 600 students, more than were then found in any Ameri- 
can college. The north and south towers and the hall connecting them 
were completed in 1852, the whole having a frontage of 250 feet. The 
other parts included in the original plan were never begun. It is also 
an interesting fact that the stone used in its construction was quarried on 
the hill on which it stands. 

In 1854 there were 12 teachers and the boarding students entirely 
filled the building. Besides that, many of the prominent families of Wor- 
cester sent their daughters. There were three departments: primary. 
academic, and collegiate: the latter, offering a four-year course of study 
closely resembling that of Brown University, of which Mr. Thayer was a 
graduate in the class of 1845. Besides the academic studies, instruction 
was given in music, drawing, painting and other branches considered neces- 
sary to the accomplishments of young women. Rather ahead of the time, 
also, was the regular gymnastic exercises required of every pupil, "As 
means to health and to develop symmetry of form and grace of carriage. - ' 
Students were expected to walk daily in the open air and a stone bar and 

185 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



riding amphitheatre in architectural harmony with the school were erected 
on the grounds, soon after the school was established. 

The spirit with which Mr. Thayer embarked on this new enterprise, 
the independence with which he assumed the entire burden of responsi- 
bility — be the outcome a success or failure — is shown in a statement 
which was printed in some of the early catalogues. 

"Individual effort originated and has thus far sustained this insti- 
tution. It has received no endowments from private munificence, nor 
public bounty except good wishes and liberal patronage. This is all the 
endowment it will receive in the future. Whatever may be the result, it 
must stand on its own merits and the will of the people. We hope that its 
patronage will never be prompted by any feeling of compassion or con- 
descension. We sell education at cost. If our merchandise is not worth 
our price, or if we have brought wares to the market for which there is 
no demand, we ask no one to share our loss. Oread Castle was founded 
in good faith under the honest conviction that it might serve the country 
and the world by advancing in some degree the able cause to which it is 
devoted. Such we hope may be its destiny." 

Mr. Thayer was almost alone in the belief that girls could equal any 
college students of the other sex in intellectual achievements if they had 
the same advantages. The Oread continued for 32 years, closing when 
the health of Mr. Thayer's son, Hon. John Alden Thayer broke down after 
one year as its principal. 

Henry S. Washburn, a member of the Board of reference of the Oread, 
was the author of the world famous song, "The Vacant Chair." It was 
written in memory of Willie Grout, a martyr at Ball's Bluff, whose two 
sisters, Nellie and Lizzie Grout, were students at the Oread Institute. 

Worcester Domestic Science School 

IN 1898 HENRY D. PERKY remodeled the interior of Oread Castle, 
adapting it to the requirements of a first-class school of Domestic 
Science — one of the first of its kind in this country. 

As the movement was comparatively new, Mr. Perky wished to ex- 
tend the knowledge of domestic science training as widely as possible 
throughout the United States, so a scholarship to the school was given to 
each state in the Union — the candidate for admission to be appointed by 
the governor of each state respectively. 

With the building complete, in new dress and new furnishings in 
January, 1899, Mr. Perky opened his school with upwards of 40 young 
ladies who were most enthusiastic over the new science and its adaptation 
to the home 

For seven years this work in Domestic Science and Home Arts was 
continued with increasing interest, until the educational importance of 
the work has become recognized at home and abroad. 

1 86 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Upon the death of Mr. Perky several of the students went to the home 
of one of the teachers — Mrs. F. M. Wethered, and asked to continue their 
studies. Their request was granted and thus developed the nucleus of 
the Worcester Domestic Science School which has since carried on the work 
in Worcester. 

The course has been enlarged and extended to cover the subjects 
scientifically and professionally 

A normal course of two years is given at this school which trains for 
teaching Domestic Science and the Home Arts in public school courses, 
trade school, institutional and playground work. 

The school has grown steadily under Mrs. Wethered's management 
until it now occupies three buildings with modern equipment and facilities. 

The school has been especially favored with patronage from all over 
the country. 

The graduates are occupying exceptional positions throughout the 
United States, Canada and Cuba. 

Domestic Science has found its permanent place in public and pri- 
vate schools as well as in the college curriculum, where it has not only 
dignified the Household Sciences, but brought renewed interest in all home 
work to young women. 

Worcester — A City of Churches 

WORCESTER'S first log church, built in 1717, was founded in 
1715. The first frame church was erected in 1719; the Old South 
Church on the Common was built in 1763. It was torn down in 
1888. The cornerstone of the present Old South Church was laid July 4, 
1888, and the building was completed and dedicated Sept. 17, 1889. The 
new church cost, complete, $160,000. 

Among the other churches in Worcester which had early beginnings 
in the city are the following: — In the Baptist faith: First Baptist, founded 
in 1812; Pleasant Street, 1841; Dewey Street, 1872. First Church of 
Christ (Disciples), 1860. In the Congregational denomination the older 
churches, next to Old South, are Central, 1820; Union, 1836; Memorial, 
1865; Plymouth, 1869; Piedmont, 1872. The Unitarians are represented 
by the First Church, I 785, and the Church of the Unity, 1846. The Society 
of Friends was established in 1732. In the Methodist faith Trinity is the 
oldest, established in 1834; Laurel Street, 1845; Trowbridge Memorial, 
I860; Grace, 1867; Bethel, 1867; First Swedish, 1878; A. M. E. Zion, 1846. 
The two oldest churches in the Episcopal denomination are All Saints, 
1843; and St. Matthews, 1871. The Second Advent Church dates back to 
1841 , and the First Universalist to the same year. 

In the Catholic churches the oldest is St. John's, 1846; St. Anne's, 
1855; St. Paul's, 1869; Notre Dame, 1869; and the Immaculate Concep- 
tion, 1874. 



187 




Dexter Harrington 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The most costly of the 100 churches in this community is undoubtedly 
Union Congregational Church, which cost over $260,000. The design is a 
model of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Union Church was built 
in 1890, and much of the arduous work in connection with its erection was 
performed by the late Philip W. Moen, who was its most wealthy member. 

Commercial Organizations 

WORCESTER has a number of very live commercial and manu- 
facturing organizations. The newly-rejuvenated Chamber of 
Commerce, which was transformed from the old Board of Trade 
into the new organization under the presidency of Edward M. Woodward, 
of the Woodward & Powell Planer Co., is the largest organization of its 
kind in New England, outside of Boston. 

Mr. Woodward, who was president of the old Board of Trade for a 
couple of years, rendered a splendid service to the City of Worcester in 
bringing about the change and making the Chamber of Commerce the 
hustling, public-spirited commercial body it is to-day. 

With the Chamber is now incorporated the Worcester Merchants 
Association, under the heading of the Mercantile Bureau. For many years 
the Merchants Association did extremely valuable work for its members 
under the direction of various presidents, the executive official being 
Edward B. Clapp, who is now in charge of the Mercantile Bureau of the 
Chamber. 

The Chamber of Commerce publishes monthly the finest trade maga- 
zine printed by any similar organization in the world. The newly-elected 
president of the Chamber is J. Lewis Ellsworth, and the secretary, Herbert 
N. Davison, both of whom have had extensive experience in the work of 
such an association, and who are live wires, always on the qui vine for 
Worcester's interests. 

Another equally active organization of business men is the Worcester 
Builders Exchange, established in 1866. The members of this organiza- 
tion are the men who have built Worcester, literally speaking. They are 
the craftsmen who have reared the great bulk of the handsome, substantial 
manufacturing and mercantile buildings which now adorn Worcester's 
streets, as well as the beautiful and attractive residences to be found all 
over the city. The president of the Exchange is George W. Kilmer, and the 
secretary for many years has been and is to-day Henry W. Sweetser. 

The Worcester Branch of the National Metal Trades Association has 
been in existence in Worcester since 1901. It has been a very potent force 
in Worcester County and even beyond its confines in making for the very 
best industrial conditions which are possible in the metal trades lines, as 
well as furnishing employment free of charge, through the instrumentality 
of its Labor Bureau, to thousands of men and women during all the years 
of its existence. It was the pioneer in systematic free employment work 
in Massachusetts, and to the Worcester Branch belongs the credit of 

189 




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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



having established the first office of this kind in this state. The office has 
had quarters at 44 Front Street since its inception. 

The general secretary for the past eight years is Donald Tulloch, and 
his assistants are: Employment secretary, John R. Back; bookkeeper, 
Miss Elizabeth M. Tulloch; stenographer, Miss Dorothy Dudley. 

Within recent years several smaller business men's organizations have 
been established in the city, each of them doing grand work in the par- 
ticular sphere which they have adopted for their activities. These include 
the Worcester Publicity Association, the Rotary Club, and the North 
Main Merchants Association. 

School of the Worcester Art Museum 

THE SCHOOL of the Worcester Art Museum began its 13th year 
October 3, 1913. For the first three years of its existence, from 
1898 to 1901, the instruction was limited to drawing and painting. 
In 1901 design was introduced. In 1905 a class was formed in metal work. 
For two years this class worked in a room at the Museum, but after Stephen 
Salisbury's death, his residence being unoccupied, it was considered wise 
to take the metal and design classes away from the Museum building. 
Rooms were fitted up at the Salisbury House, and into these well equipped 
shops the two classes were moved September 23, 1907. Classes working 
from the antique and life remained at the Museum. 

A year later, in September, 1908, weaving and bookbinding were 
added, making in all three crafts. The increased size of the school soon 
demanded a principal to direct its work. H. Stuart Michie — then instruct- 
or at the George Washington University was secured, and came to Worces- 
ter in 1909 to assume the responsibility of the school and teach design, his 
training in Toronto, New York and London well qualifying him for this 
position. 

While drawing and painting alone are still pursued by some of the 
pupils, the school has gradually grown larger in its scope and purpose; 
its aim is to perfect the courses in design and the applied arts, basing these 
courses on a sound training in drawing and color. Such a system is found 
best exemplified in the London County Council Schools, under Professor 
Lethaby, which, with the best instruction in the principles of art, are 
kept in close touch with the industries of the city. 

The school has taken a great step forward in that now, for the first 
time, all the teachers are resident in Worcester. 

Otto Victor Humann, teacher of drawing and painting, was instructor 
in the summer school of Columbia College. Mr. Humann's instruction 
in drawing and color fit the pupils for facility in the technique of design. 
He has a special class in drawing, water color and oil painting for those 
who are unable to attend the school at any other time; also a class for 
children. 

191 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The jewelry made by Edmund B. Rolfe is well known in the crafts 
shops of the principal cities. He is an expert in enameling, and has intro- 
duced it into the school in connection with his instruction in metal work. 
He also has classes in modeling, especial attention being given to evening 
classes, to which a limited number of the members of the Art Students 
Club have been invited. 

The success of the bookbinding class under Miss Elizabeth G. Marot 
was shown by the beautiful display of 40 books bound by last year's class, 
exhibited in the Spring Exhibition of the school at the Museum. Miss 
Marot studied with Cobden Sanderson in London and with M. Domont 
and M. Nouhlac in Paris. Her instruction embraces what is best in the 
English and French methods. 

Worcester is the home of many industries in which the artistic element 
is an important factor. The Museum School is designed to be of practical 
use. With its staff of accomplished teachers, it offers courses of the highest 
value and advantage to the artisan and skilled worker. Here skilled 
mechanics and artisans may acquire the artistic training which will enable 
them to rise higher in their various fields of labor. 

In 1912 Pottery was added and George W. Greene of Boston secured 
as instructor. Different processes are taught and the glazing and firing 
are done on the premises. 

Massachusetts State Normal School 

THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE NORMAL SCHOOL was founded 
in 1874 and is, therefore, about to celebrate its 40th anniversary. It 
has graduated about 1 ,500 teachers and a very large portion of them 
have had service in the schools of Worcester, probably from 65 to 75 per 
cent, of the teachers in service in this city being graduates of this school. 

The courses are planned exclusively for the preparation of teachers 
for grades below the high school, including kindergarten, and particularly 
as high as the sixth grade. As a usual thing, the students take up the 
work of teaching for which they are prepared. 

Being situated in a large city, surrounded by many well populated 
towns which are all easily accessible by means of trolley and steam cars, 
the Worcester Normal School acts very largely as a local institution, 
receiving its students from a comparatively small area and thus supplying 
teachers to this limited area. For that reason, it stands as a training 
school for the city of Worcester more than for the state. This has brought 
about a close association between the city and the Normal School, with the 
result that there is a system of apprenticeship by means of which the 
students go out into the schools of the city for practice teaching. This is 
a regular part of the courses and enables students to gain, by actual work 
and observation, an experience which fits them to take responsible positions 
immediately upon graduation. It is an institution that is doing splendid 
work and one that the city of Worcester can well be proud of. 

The principal is Dr. William B. Aspinwall. 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Holy Cross College 



THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS was founded in 1843 by 
the Right Rev. Benedict Joseph Fenwick, second Bishop of Boston, 
It is the oldest Catholic College in New England. It was incor- 
porated by the State Legislature in 1 865 with power " to confer such degrees 
as are conferred by any college in this Commonwealth, except medical 
degrees. " 

The system of education is founded on the famous Ratio Studiorum of 
the Society of Jesus, whose members direct the Institution and constitute 
the entire teaching staff. 

The college course comprises four years of prescribed studies, with a 
few elective courses in the last year. The completion of a four years' 
high school course (classical) usually fits a student for entrance. 

The formation and training of character is considered of first impor- 
tance, hence moral training and religious instruction receive special atten- 
tion. The wisdom of this provision was emphasized by President Roose- 
velt when he said, at the commencement exercises, June 21, 1905: "It is 
eminently characteristic of our nation that we should have an institution 
of learning like Holy Cross, in which the effort is consistently made to 
train not merely the body and mind, but the soul of man, that he shall be 
made a good American and a good citizen of our great country." 

Physical training is amply provided for by a well equipped gymnasium, 
equal to the best in New England, football and baseball fields, tennis courts, 
etc. Physical instructors and experienced trainers are also provided. 
A representative of the faculty exercises general supervision of this depart- 
ment and will see that students do not become so engrossed in athletics 
that their studies might be neglected or their health suffer. 

The healthfulness of the location and the natural beauty of the sur- 
rounding scenery are conspicuous. The spot was considered at the time 
consecrated in local history. Near it the first humble wigwam church of 
Worcester had been erected by John Eliot for his Indians in 1674. The 
Fathers of the Society of Jesus who had long been established in Maryland 
were invited to organize the courses of study, according to the curriculum 
of their college at Georgetown, in the district of Columbia, and to take entire 
charge of the teaching. 

On the second day of November, 1843, classes were organized in what 
was then known as the "Seminary of Mt. St. James" and were there 
continued until January 13, 1844, when the first college building was com- 
pleted. The cornerstone of the latter was laid by Bishop Fenwick June 
21, 1843. Speaking of this event, the Catholic Expositor of August, 1843, 
describes the purpose of the new institution as "the advancement of the 
arts, the cultivation of the sciences and promotion of patriotism, morality, 
virtue and religion." The same publication describes this first building 
as a brick structure 104 feet in length and four stories in height "with a 
fine portico on the centre of the front." 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



On the afternoon of July 14, 1852, eight days before the annual 
commencement, a fire broke out which destroyed the whole of the central 
building. On the 3rd of October, 1853, however, the college was enlarged 
and remodelled and again ready to receive students. The effect, however, 
of such a calamity on the young college is shown by the interruption of 
graduating classes from 1852 to 1858. 

The charter granted to "the trustees of the College of the Holy Cross 
in Massachusetts" with other privileges, the power to confer such degrees 
as are conferred by any college in this Commonwealth, except on medical 
degrees." This placed this college on the equality before the Common- 
wealth with all other institutions of a similar character. 

The college buildings, as stated above, are situated on one of the 
highest of the eminences surrounding the city of Worcester. Towards 
the north this "Hill of Pleasant Springs" commands an extensive and most 
delightful view of Worcester, at the time of the founding of the College a 
town of hardly 10,000 inhabitants, over and beyond its many towers and 
spires and other elevations looms aloft in the background against the 
northern horizon, the summit of Mt. Wachusett, the second highest point 
in Massachusetts. 

Young Men's Christian Association 

THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION was organized 
January 14, 1864, and the present building, Elm and Pearl streets, 
erected in 1887. The boathouse at Lake Quinsigamond for summer 
work was erected in 1902. The camp site at Washington, N. H., eighty 
acres, was given to the Association in 1910, and the dormitory addition, 
the old Day and Gage buildings on Pearl Street, was purchased in 1912. 

The Association is governed by a board of 21 directors, 13 of whom 
are actively identified with manufacturing concerns. 

The present membership is 1,523, and includes 25 nationalities, the 
church affiliations of which embrace Catholic, Hebrew, Mohammedan and 
Protestant. 

In the Physical Department there are 30 classes per week, with over 
900 men and boys using the gymnasium and baths. 

There are 25 classes in the Educational Department, with enrollment 
of 940. Thirteen classes in English for foreigners outside the building, with 
enrollment of 134. Total enrollment, 1,074. Sixty-seven percent, of 
educational class students are engaged in industrial pursuits. 

There is a dormitory with accommodations for 50 men and practically 
filled all the time. The majority of roomers are young men recently 
arrived in the city. The Boys' Division is wide awake and doing a strong 
work for employed, high school and grammar school boys. 

In religious work the Worcester Association ranks well up among the 
600 city Associations of the United States and Canada. In the meetings 
each week in 27 shops at the noon hour there was a total attendance of 

196 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



31 ,836 for the year, the Association ranks seventh and ranks high in various 
other lines. The boys' meeting, held weekly, with an average of nearly 
600, is the largest of its kind in the country. 

The Association building, occupied since 1887 and remodelled from 
time to time, has been sold to the Knights of Columbus, who will take 
possession July I, 1914. This does not include the dormitory property 
adjoining the Association building on Pearl Street. 

As a site for the new home of the Association, the Dodge estate at 766 
Main Street, running through to Murray Avenue and containing brick 
house and 63,016 square feet of land, has been purchased. The plans 
include removal of the house from the Main Street front to Murray Avenue 
and to utilize the same for boys' work and to erect the new building on 
the Main Street site. This building will contain bowling alleys, social 
rooms, educational class facilities, up-to-date physical equipment, natato- 
rium, baths, hand ball courts, dormitory and executive offices. On the 
Murray Avenue site the old fish pool will be enlarged and made into an 
open air swimming pool and curling rink. On the north end of the lot, 
running track, tennis courts, bowling green and other facilities for out-of- 
door work will be provided. The trees on the place will be conserved and 
the park utilized for various lines of summer work, such as band concerts, 
open air motion picture entertainments, picnics, etc. This proposition is 
said to be the most unique of anything in the Association world and will 
put Worcester in the front rank in facilities in work for men. 

Clarence W. Hobbs, of the Hobbs Manufacturing Co., is president. 

The general secretary is Fred L. Willis, and the physical director 
Edward W. Wilder, who has an honorable record of a quarter century's 
work with the Worcester Association. 



Young Women's Christian Association 

THIS WORCESTER ORGANIZATION, a branch of that great 
body that has now spread into every land where white men and 
women have carried civilization and progress, is now 30 years old. 

It was suggested to a few thoughtful women, by observations, of the 
need of a safe meeting place for wage-earning girls, where they could spend 
their evenings in safety and comfort 

The condition of Main Street was quite the same then as it is now, 
except that now there are more attractions offered to the thoughtless and 
unwary. 

These women held many conferences and finally decided to hire 
rooms, if a sufficient number of people could be interested to finance the 
work. The rooms must needs be on Main Street that they might be easy 
of access. They must be attractive and homelike, with some one in attend- 
ance who understood girls and could meet them on their own ground and 
make a pleasant place for evening gatherings, 

197 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Through the first president, Mrs. Charles G. Reed, and Rev. Dr. D. 
O. Mears, Dwight Reed became interested and offered $1,000 toward the 
work when the organization should be completed. 

History says that on the 13th of June, 1885, the first meeting of sub- 
scribers to the agreement of forming an association for helpfulness to the 
wage-earning girls and women of the city was held in the rooms of the 
Y. M. C. A. In a short time the organization was completed, a constitu- 
tion adopted and officers elected, together with an Executive Committee of 
24 members — Mrs. Charles G. Reed was president. 

Through the interested kindness of Dr. Mears, who transacted the 
necessary business, the certificate of organization was procured. With the 
organization completed, work began. 

The first question confronted was that of a home or rooms suitable 
for the work. At first a boarding house seemed a necessity, but after a long 
search the project was abandoned and the attention of the committee 
was turned to securing rooms. It was realized that great economy was 
necessary and many weary days were spent in the search. The committee 
finally secured three rooms on the third floor of 352 Main Street. These 
were repaired and possession taken February 1 , 1 886. 

Several months later, May 26, 1886, the first annual meeting was held 
in Plymouth Chapel, at which time Mrs. Reed, the president, resigned on 
account of illness. 

Mrs. Charles F. Rugg was elected to fill the office. She served until 
1892. In all its history there have been but four presiding officers, Mrs. 
Charles H. Morgan was the third president and she rendered splendid 
service to the Association in that capacity for a score of years. It was 
under her guiding hand and remarkable executive ability that the organ- 
ization made such rapid strides in the last two decades. 

The fourth and present head of the Association is Mrs. Frank L. 
Durkee. 

The work increased rapidly, educational classes were formed. Young 
women were most eager to avail themselves of the opportunites offered 
them. A noon lunch was established. This was the outgrowth of a cup 
of hot tea or milk being furnished to make the cold lunches more appetizing. 

In 1890 these quarters were entirely outgrown. The next problem 
was that of a new building. This seemed necessary in order to save the 
important work established. The organizers had the confidence of the 
public and decided to appeal to the people of the city for the needed help. 

Already a bequest from Dwight Reed of $4,000 was received, making 
his total gifts to the Association $5,000 and by his gift the Y. W. C. A. 
was made possible. Very many generous friends responded to the cause. 
The heaviest contributor to the work was E. A. Goodnow. 

The land upon which the buildings stand on Chatham Street was 
purchased for $18,000. The cost of the building, exclusive of special gifts, 
was $87,651 .10. The sleeping rooms and parlors were finished and fur- 
nished by churches and individuals. It was a proud day when the Y. W. 



199 




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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



C. A. took possession in 1891 and opened the doors for the inspection of 
donors and the general public. 

As the committee went over the building, it seemed so large it was 
feared it might never be filled, yet in less than three months every room 
was occupied. Since that time the Association has secured the property 
adjoining and also has an apartment at 68 Chatham Street. To-day these 
buildings are crowded and largely with young women who need sheltering 
care. 

The first attempt at serving lunch was when the cup of hot tea or glass 
of milk and on Saturday night a pot of baked beans was served. Compare 
this with the lunch department of the Association of to-day, when in the 
last four months there have been served 40,000 meals exclusive of the help 
in the home and lunch department. 

There is also an educational department covering many useful sub- 
jects. A Junior Department is laying the basis for a stronger minded 
young womanhood. The children come from homes where the busy moth- 
er's time is fully occupied with the care of her family. 

The gymnasium is largely patronized by the young women of Wor- 
cester, while an extensive library enables the girls to pass many pleasant 
and profitable hours. 

The work among the young women in factories and shops was es- 
tablished some years ago by one of the secretaries and is so promising that 
through the contribution of interested friends a trained secretary for that 
work alone is engaged. 



Free Public Library 



CARLYLE once said, "A collection of books is a real university." 
The Scotch sage undoubtedly had special reference to an individual 
library such as may be found — small, but exceedingly choice, in the 
average Scotchman's home. But the same is true also in a larger sense of 
the free public library of a town or city. In this way, Worcester has a 
number of choice universities. 

The Public Library was founded in 1859, the old building erected in 
1861 and the new building on Elm Street in 1891. It was the first public 
library in Worcester, being an outgrowth of the Young Men's Association 
Library. 

The valuation of the Library is, personal property, $160,000, real 
estate, $175,935. total. $335,935. 

There are three branch library buildings: at 470 West Boylston Street, 
813 Millbury Street, and 705 Southbridge Street. The Library now con- 
tains 200,934 volumes and 27,741 pamphlets. The circulation for the year 
closing November 30, 1913, was 466,339, of which 60,196 were sent to the 
public schools. 

The most interesting fact of the library history during the past year 
is the erection of three branch libraries referred to which were dedicated 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



the latter part of February. They were gifted to the city by Andrew Car- 
negie, the land on which all of the buildings stand being bought and pre- 
sented to the city by manufacturers in these sections, prominent among 
them being members of the National Metal Trades Association. The 
librarian is Robert K. Shaw. 

The negotiations with Scotland's most distinguished American to 
secure the gift of $75,000 for the Branch Libraries in Worcester, were 
conducted by Hon. James Logan, while he was Mayor of Worcester. 

Worcester Art Museum 

THE WORCESTER ART MUSEUM was founded in 1896 by 
Stephen Salisbury who gave the land, a sum for the building, which 
was erected in part by contributions from citizens of Worcester, 
and a modest endowment, placing the whole in the hands of trustees. 

At his death, he bequeathed his whole estate, aside from minor per- 
sonal legacies, to the Museum, amounting to about $2,750,000. 

The Museum building is valued at $100,000. The Salisbury house, on 
Highland Street, now used for the purposes of the school, is valued at 
$13,000. 

Rev. Dr. Austin S. Garver, President of the Board of Trustees, speak- 
ing of the Museum, said: 

"It is difficult to assess the value of the treasures of all kinds now in 
the Museum. In one sense they are priceless. Perhaps a half million 
dollars would not be an excessive prosaic estimate. 

"Paintings constitute the most important part, many of them of 
the first rank, and altogether as choice a collection as can be found any- 
where. 

"Besides there are collections of casts, given for the most part by 
citizens and societies in Worcester; thousands of photographs, colonial 
silver, the Bancroft collection of Japanese prints, old costumes, laces, 
pottery, etc. There is also a valuable library." 

The Museum has for its motto, "For the benefit of all the people of the 
City of Worcester." 

Worcester Music Festival 

THE WORCESTER MUSIC FESTIVAL is known in every music 
centre in the world. It was organized 57 years ago, and has steadily 
grown until the greatest artists to be heard in America, both vocal 
and instrumental, are none too good for its patrons. 

The Worcester County Musical Association, which is the technical 
name of the organization, is a corporation organized under the laws of 
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Conductors, as famous in their 
particular line as the artists in theirs, have brought the chorus to a high 

203 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



state of efficiency. Dr. Arthur Mees, of New York, rehearsed the chorus 
this year for the seventh year and visiting artists who have had the ex- 
perience of singing with a variety of choruses, claim, with one accord, 
that the Worcester festival choral forces cannot be rivalled on this conti- 
nent. William H. Cook is president. 

Some of the great artists who have sung at the festivals, not once, 
but some of them many years are, Madame Schuman Heink, who was the 
bright particular star at the Fiftieth Jubilee, Madame Gadski, Melba's 
incomparable voice has been heard, Nordica and Sembrich, George Ham- 
blin, David Bispham, Campanini, Evan Williams, De Gogorza, and Ffran- 
geon Davies. Harold Bauer and Micha Elman have charmed audiences 
at piano and violin, and a galaxy of equally brilliant names adorn the records 
of the Association. 

The first conductor of the chorus, B. D. Allen, died March 2, 1914, 
at his home near Boston. 

Mechanics Hall, in which the festival has been given every year since 
its inception, is now altogether inadequate to house the audiences which 
wish to hear the concerts, but a new auditorium worthy of such gatherings 
is almost in sight for Worcester. 

Every year one of the newer works is on the program, but always the 
festival management is true to the grand old oratorios that will never die. 
Sir Edward Elgar's "Dream of Gerontius" and "Caractacus" by the same 
composer, Granville Bantock's splendid composition, "Omar Khayyam," 
based on the Persian poet's works, Horatio Parker's "Hora Novissima," 
all were considered worthy a place on the program for one of the nights, 
and some of them have been repeated. 

People from long distances spend festival week in Worcester and every 
available room in the hotels are bespoken weeks ahead. 

The chorus is composed of 350 picked singers, Many of them have 
sung for so many years that they can sing the entire music of numerous 
works without once referring to their score. New voices are tested early 
in January and rehearsals continue from then until May, resuming in 
September for a last brushing up before the festival which takes place 
during one week, usually early in October. 

Worcester Woman's Club 

THE WORCESTER WOMAN'S CLUB, the most exclusive woman's 
organization in the city, was organized December, 1880, It met 
in various halls as well as in the homes of its members in the early 
years of its existence, but later held its meetings in Memorial Hall of the 
Young Women's Christian Association Building. 

After several years there and, as time advanced with an ever-increasing 
membership, the clubwomen realized the necessity and importance of 
securing a hall and building of their own. 



205 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The late Stephen Salisbury gave the Club the site on which the pres- 
ent building stands and it was erected about 12 years ago by what is called 
the Clubhouse Corporation, a band of women, members of the Club, form- 
ing themselves into this body for that purpose, and the Woman's Club 
becoming the tenant. 

The architect of the building very appropriately was a woman — 
Miss Josephine Wright Chapman, of Boston, and it is needless to say that 
she designed a clubhouse which for comfort, convenience and attractive- 
ness is unexcelled anywhere. 

With the furnishings the building cost $100,000, and as this sketch 
is being written the courageous women who built for themselves such a 
beautiful home are arranging for a carnival, the receipts of which will 
wipe out the small debt at present existing on the building. 

The Club also published, April 1 1 , the entire edition of the Worcester 
Evening Gazette. It was exclusively a Woman's Club paper, all the work, 
except the mechanical part, being performed by women. The editor-in- 
chief was Miss Arabella H. Tucker, the managing editor was Mrs. Isabella 
Mackenzie Tulloch, and the business manager, Miss Adah B. Johnson. 
All reporters, sub-editors, advertising solicitors were women. The paper 
was, of course, a literary and financial success. 

Miss Georgie A. Bacon, of Worcester, Vice-President of the National 
Federation of Woman's Clubs, was president of the Worcester Club at 
the time the action was taken towards securing a building of its own. 

The Worcester Club has a membership of 650, with 1 70 on the waiting 
list. It is larger than any individual club in Boston and is one of the most 
progressive clubs in Massachusetts. 

Miss Arabella H. Tucker is now president of the Club. 

The Playground Movement 

THE MASSACHUSETTS CIVIC LEAGUE gives Worcester the 
first place in the state in playground development. 
The playground movement in Worcester was inaugurated in 1910 
by a citizens' committee which raised, by public subscription, $10,753.00 
and received further contributions from the Parks Department and the 
School Department of the city, bringing the total up to $14,848.00. This 
money was spent the first year for supervision and for equipment for 20 
playgrounds. 

In 1911 the city established a playground department in charge of a 
Commission, and the playgrounds have since been continued as a part of 
the municipal work. 

Seven public playgrounds and bathing beaches have been bought by 
the city, the valuation of the land and buildings of which is $157,273. 

Last year the Commission maintained playgrounds in 25 centres: 
nine in schoolyards, seven in public parks, seven on playground property, 
and two on property loaned for the purpose. 

206 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The Commission employs during the summer a total force of about 
70 people. It maintains two swimming beaches and two children's gardens, 
Swimming instruction and garden instruction for boys and girls have been 
given, and aside from the usual playground activities, athletic and other- 
wise, there has been instruction in basketry, sewing and other useful work. 

For two years a play festival was held in the summer, at which each 
year, over 5,000 children took part. The children were brought from their 
various playgrounds to Fitton Field for the play festival, which was called 
"Tailltenn games," and the children returned to their playgrounds without 
one child being lost or any accident of any kind. 

For two years, also the playground department has had charge of the 
Safe and Sane Fourth Celebration, so far as it has been conducted in parks, 
playgrounds and schoolyards. 

The department has built and maintained a number of tennis courts 
which are in constant demand. 

The attendance at the playgrounds in 1913 was 305,481, an average 
of 3,548 per session. The cost per child per session was slightly over three 
cents. The children's gardens had a total attendance of 17,070; the swim- 
ming beaches a total attendance of 32,784. For the use of the baseball 
diamonds of the playgrounds 2,720 permits were issued. 

The annual expenditure for playground purposes is about $20,000 
a year. The playground system of Worcester has received the highest 
commendation from experts in this work who have made personal visits 
here. Worcester playgrounds rank among the very best in the country. 

George F. Booth, owner and publisher of the Worcester Gazette, is 
chairman of the Playground Commission, and W. Francis Hyde was super- 
visor until April I, 1914, when he was succeeded by Thomas E. Holland 



Lake Quinsigamond 



LAKE QUINSIGAMOND or Qunnosogamang, (Indian for pickerel 
fishing place), is one of the most beautiful sheets of water of its size 
in America. It lies in a valley and stretches its length for seven miles. 
I ts depth varies from one inch to I 1 feet and its greatest width at any 
point is three-quarters of a mile. The greatest depth is off Temple Point. 

The lake is an ideal summer resort and is surrounded by 600 cottages, 
and this summer colony enjoys all the delights of a summer resort while 
within a half hour's travel from their places of business. 

Lake Quinsigamond has a splendid regatta course and many of the 
world's champion scullers were trained on its waters. The professional 
world's record was made there by Ned Hanlon about 23 years ago, for 
three miles with a turn. The National Amateur Regatta was held here on 
three different occasions and the New England Regatta many times. The 
famous Hotel Belmont is now the headquarters of the Motor Boat Club, 
and craft of all kinds and sizes belonging to its members dot the lake. 
About 40 years ago the varsity crews of Harvard and Yale rowed their 
annual races on this ideal course. 

207 



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It orcester. City 0/ Prosperity 



Among the many dubs and social organizations that are housed on 
the shores of Lake Quinsigamond are the following: 

Quinsigamond Boat Club. Tatassit Canoe Club. Lakeside Boat Club, 
^ ashington Club. Gesang \ erein Frohsinn. English Social Club. Svea Gille 
Association. ^X orcester Swimming Club. Quinsigamond Athletic Club, 
^1 oung Men s Christian Association Boathouse. ^S orcester Motor Boat 
Club. Swedish Gymnasium Club. Lake View Rod and Gun Club. 

Masonic Order — 55.000 Strong 
in Massachusetts 

'~T"'HE MASONIC ORDER in Worcester is represented by 3.000 

members and there are some 55.000 in the State of Massachusetts. 

The newly-erected Masonic Temple on Ionic Avenue is a grand 

monument to the ambition of the Masonic Order in Worcester to have a 

home of their own. It cost, with furnishings. Si SO. 000. 

The Masons of Massachusetts also own a beautiful home at Charlton, 
a few miles from ^ orcester. purchased several years ago. 

This home was originally built as a country hotel, it is located in the 
midst of beautiful scenery, and on the top of the highest land in ^S orcester 
County. But this venture was not a success. The original owners ex- 
pended $525,000 on the property, but it was purchased at a very greatly 
reduced price from the above. 

L p to the present time 69 persons have been cared for. ^ ives. widows, 
mothers and daughters of masons are eligible. 

The name of the corporation holding the property is '"The Board of 
Masonic Relief of the Grand Lodse of Masons in Massachusetts. 



Masonic Temple 



The approximate cost of the Masonic Temple recently erected in 
Worcester, with the land. $175,000; the Masonic Home in Charlton, $50.- 
000. There are in the city of Worcester at the present time six 33rd degree 
Masons. This is the highest point to which any Mason can attain. There 
are in the State of Massachusetts eighty-eight. 



14 -°9 




Odd Fellows Home, Worcester, Mass. 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester Odd Fellows 

THERE ARE 7,400 members of the Order of Odd Fellows in Worces- 
ter County. The Odd Fellows Building on Main Street was erected 
in 1906, by an organization representative of the various lodges in 
the city called the Odd Fellows Charitable Association, of which George F. 
Brooks has been president since its inception. Mr. Brooks is also treasurer 
of the Harrington & Richardson Arms Company, one of the leading members 
of the National Metal Trades Association. 

The cost of the building on Main Street along with furnishings was 
$105,000. 

Odd Fellowship in the Old Bay State also owns a handsome home for 
aged and indigent Odd Fellows and their wives, widows, and orphans. 
It is situated on a beautiful eminence in Greendale, a northern suburb of 
the city, and is an enduring and noble charity that reflects honor upon 
a worthy brotherhood. 

It was established through the generosity of Thomas H. Dodge, an 
honored citizen of Worcester, in presenting eleven acres of land for a site; 
the voluntary contributions of individuals and subscriptions by the various 
branches and organizations of Odd Fellowship, provided the means whereby 
the buildings were erected. 

The corner stone was laid October 8, 1890, the Home was dedicated 
June 22. 1892, and in the Autumn of 1903, a new building, equal in size 
to the original structure, with rooms for 60 additional inmates, was com- 
pleted. The Home which has accommodations for I 10 persons, was incor- 
porated under Massachusetts laws, June 22, 1898. The buildings and 
grounds are valued at $150,000 free from indebtedness and exempt from 
taxation. 

From the date of dedication in 1892 to January 1, 1914 — 316 inmates 
have been admitted. The present number of inmates is 100 — 70 men and 
30 women. 

The Home is supported by a tax levied upon nearly 59,000 brothers, 
comprising the membership of 242 subordinate lodges of Odd Fellows in the 
jurisdiction of Massachusetts, by voluntary contributions from Rebekah 
Lodges, and by the income from legacies and bequests of benevolent people 
who recognize in this work one of the grandest humanitarian projects ever 
attempted and successfully carried out by man. 

A permanent fund, created by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 
September, 1897, is known as the "Odd Fellows Home Permanent Fund" 
and now amounts to $75,000. 

The superintendent and matron of the Home are Mr. and Mrs. 
Herbert B. Belcher. 




Mechanics Hall, Worcester, Mass. 




Mechanics Hall, Worcester, Mass. 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Mechanics Hall 



MECHANICS HALL is owned by the Worcester County Mechan- 
ics Association, organized February 5, 1842, with William A. 
Wheeler, Worcester's first foundryman and machinist, as presi- 
dent and Ichabod Washburn, the pioneer wire manufacturer, as vice- 
president. It was incorporated March 9, 1850, for the "purpose of promot- 
ing moral and intellectual improvement and perfecting the mechanical 
arts and for charitable purposes," with William T. Merrifield as president 
and Henry Goulding as vice-president. 

The corner stone of the present building was laid September 3, 1855. 
This day was made a general holiday. All business was suspended and all 
employers and employees and the general public, together with the city 
government, united on that day in an undertaking that did then and in all 
the intervening years redound to the honor of the manufacturers and 
mechanics of Worcester county. 

The present hall was dedicated March 15, 1857. Some questions had 
been raised as to the safety of the hall when crowded, and much to the 
the delight of the architect, Elbridge Boyden, 3,000 people filed into the 
hall and settled the matter at once, that the factor of safety had been well 
looked after. The master builder was Horatio N. Tower. Both of these 
were Worcester men, active members of the Association and members of 
the building committee. 

The seating capacity of the hall was at first 2,000, but in later years 
this has been reduced from time to time to avoid congestion to 1 ,758. 
Mechanics Hall is known the country over for its wonderful acoustic prop- 
erties and has repeatedly been pronounced by orators and singers as the 
equal of any known hall now in existence. During its 60 years of use its 
walls have resounded with the eloquence of the greatest orators. All of the 
star musical artists of the day have been heard there, and it is safe to say 
that next to the historic Faneuil Hall in Boston, Mechanics Hall is 
noted along political, musical, literary, scientific and social lines more than 
any other. 

Surely its name was well chosen. It was designed and built by me- 
chanics for a mechanical society with mechanics' money and for 60 years has 
maintained a library and reading room for its members and provided a 
meeting place for all occasions second to none. 

The first cost of land and building was about $140,000. The largest 
single giver was Deacon Ichabod Washburn, the smaller hall known as 
Washburn Hall being named after him. 256 members of the Association 
subscribed about $44,000 and although the Association saw some very 
strenuous times in its early days, it has proven what can be done when 
employers and employees are united for their common good. 

The first Mechanics Fair was held in 1848 in the hall of the Worcester 
County Agricultural Society. The first lecture before the Mechanics Asso- 

213 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



ciation was delivered February 21, 1842, by a resident of Worcester, Elihu 
Burritt, well known in later years as the "Learned Blacksmith." 

Truly the words of President Washburn at the dedication of the hall 
have come true. In his address he said: 

"Here the orator will display his eloquence and the scholar his erudi- 
tion, questions of momentous interest, state and national, will be here dis- 
cussed. It will undoubtedly be the theatre of many strongly contested 
debates upon the great problems of human rights and human destiny." 
In conclusion he said, in describing the building: 

"Here it stands and it speaks to you to-day in tones far more eloquent 
than I can command, imposing and beautiful in its external elevation, the 
interior fills the beholder with admiration and delight. I know not but the 
eye of the critic may discover here and there a blemish, but if the true test 
of the beautiful consists in its power to please and charm the universal mind, 
then is ours a complete success, for rarely to our knowledge has a building 
been erected which has called forth such unqualified praise from all classes 
and conditions of men." 

George H. Coates is the president of the Association. 
Mechanics Hall is an enduring monument to the courage and genius 
of the mechanics, artisans and business men of that day. These men 
knew how to welcome new ideas and put them into practical use. The 
world to-day is benefiting by their inventions. The mechanics of more 
than half a century ago knew also how to make a small town like Wor- 
cester become a great city, but the means they wrought with and the 
results they sought were the means and results of peace, the agencies of 
faithful endeavor and industry, of practical sense, of equal right to others 
in matters of opinion and the dissemination among the people of the 
blessings of education and the priceless boon of literature. 

The Glorious Fourth Made Safe 

FOR THE PAST three years Worcester has observed a Safe and Sane 
Fourth of July. A band of enthusisasts has taken the dangerous 

cannon cracker out of the hands of the youthful boys and girls, yes, 
and the big boys and girls, too, and in its stead they have provided elabo- 
rate entertainment for young and old. The result has been the elimina- 
tion of fatalities and the reduction to an infinitesimal percentage acci- 
dents of any kind. 

Historical pageants, military processions, band concerts, sports of 
all kinds for all ages and nationalities, patriotic exercises in public schools 
have taken the place of the senseless noise and the exuberance of patriots, 
and young and old have been given a healthy form of expression. 

Hon. Alfred S. Roe and Donald Tulloch have been president and 
secretary respectively since the formation of the Worcester Safe and Sane 
Fourth of July Association, which is one of the pioneers in America in this 
work and is now conducted under the direction of the city. 

214 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The American Antiquarian Society 

THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY celebrated in 1912 
its 100th anniversary. It is one of the oldest national institutions 
in the United States and its handsome home, recently erected, is 
in Worcester. 

In October, 1912, Isaiah Thomas, of Worcester, at that time editor 
and publisher of the Massachusetts Spy, with five associates, petitioned 
the Massachusetts Legislature to establish a society whose chief object 
should be the collecting and preserving of the materials for a study of 
American history and antiquities. 

On October 24, 1812, the Society was incorporated. It was decided 
that beyond the reason of the residence of the founder, it was best to locate 
the building of the Society at an inland rather than a coast town. As 
Thomas said: "For the better preservation from the destruction so often 
experienced in large towns and cities by fire, as well as from the ravages 
of an enemy, to which seaports in particular are so much exposed in time 
of war, it is universally agreed that for a place of deposit for articles in- 
tended to be preserved for ages, and of which many, if destroyed or carried 
away, could never be replaced by others of the like kind, an inland situa- 
tion is to be preferred; this consideration alone was judged sufficient for 
placing the Library and Museum of this Society 40 miles distant from 
the nearest branch of the sea, in the town of Worcester, Massachusetts." 

The Society had exceptional opportunities to acquire material at 
the outset through the munificence of its founders. Isaiah Thomas is 
justly entitled to rank with the most liberal minded men of his period. 
His journalistic activity during his early manhood has placed his name 
high in the lists of Revolutionary patriots, his eminence as a printer had 
earned him the sobriquet of the "Baskerville of America." Familiarity 
with the work of similar institutions in Europe had long made him de- 
sirous of establishing in this country a society which should have for its 
great aim the collecting and preserving of the materials of national his- 
tory And when the time came for the fruition of his plans, he gave 
liberally both money and books that the Society might have a beginning 
worthy of its name. 

The first meeting of the Society was held at the Exchange Coffee 
House in Boston, November 19, 1812, when organization was effected with 
Mr. Thomas as president. At the following meeting in February, an- 
nouncement was made of the gift of the president's own library, one of 
the largest private collections of America then existing in the country. 

In the year 1820, through the generosity of Mr. Thomas, a build- 
ing was erected, "highly ornamental as a publick edifice, and well cal- 
culated to give respectability and permanency to the Institution." It 
is now standing, though in a dilapidated condition, on its original site on 
Summer Street, Worcester. 

215 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Isaiah Thomas died on April 4, 1831. To the time of his death he 
manifested a keen desire to work in behalf of the Society. By the terms 
of his will he gave it funds for various purposes amounting to $24,000. 
His entire gifts, including books, land, building, and funds, amounted 
to about $50,000. 

In 1832, two wings, each 25 by 20 feet, were erected, thus providing 
much needed room. Scarcely 20 years passed before this building was 
outgrown. In 1853, a new building 50 by 80 feet, of brick with freestone 
trimmings, was erected at a cost of $18,000. Enlarged in 1877 by an 
addition of 51 by 46 feet, at a cost of $12,700, it lasted half a century 
before it was outgrown. 

In 1854 Stephen Salisbury, whose interest in the Society had been 
previously evidenced by his gift of the land upon which the building stood, 
was chosen president of the Society. For 39 years he served in this office. 
During the administration of Stephen Salisbury the Library had greatly 
increased. From a collection of 23,000 volumes it had become a library 
of 80,000 volumes in 1884. It was fortunate for the Society that it could 
enlist the services of so able a patron as Stephen Salisbury, Jr. In 1887, 
three years after his father's death, he was chosen president of the Society 
and remained in office until his death, in 1905. Throughout these 18 
years he carried out the ideals set by his father and recorded his faith 
in its future by the generous bequest of his private library, a portion of 
his real estate and the sum of $200,000. 

Waldo Lincoln, of Worcester, whose family and ancestral ties con- 
nected him in every way with the Society, was chosen president in 1907. 

Clarence S. Brigham is the present librarian. There are 130,000 
volumes and 70,000 pamphlets in the Society's valued possession. It is 
one of the great libraries of the country for students of American history 
and allied subjects, ranking in the field of American-printed books with 
the Lenox Library, the John Carter Brown Library, and the Library of 
Congress. 

It is for its collection of newspapers that the library of the American 
Antiquarian Society is undoubtedly most frequently consulted. The 
first permanent newspaper published in this country was the Boston News 
Letter, established in 1704. From this date up to 1800 the Library pos- 
sesses nearly 600 bound volumes of papers. As long ago as the year 1839 
there were 1 ,251 volumes of newspapers in the library, and to-day the num- 
ber totals about 7,000. The founder of the Society, Isaiah Thomas, had 
exceptional opportunities to acquire colonial newspapers. As editor of 
the Massachusetts Spy, one of the important newspapers of the country, 
he exchanged with the publishers of other newspapers. 

Nearly all of the long line of historical scholars who have told the 
story of America's past have been members of the Society and gleaned 
many of their facts from its archives. Bancroft, Story, Sparks, Parkman, 
Prescott, Winsor — have been members and have taken prominent part 
in the meetings. Of the scientists can be named Humboldt, Schoolcraft, 
Gallatin, Brinton. 



2l6 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The membership is strictly national in its scope. Although Massa- 
chusetts is largely represented and the city of Worcester provides a dis- 
proportionate number of members in order to administer the Society's 
affairs, yet nearly one-third of the membership lies outside of New Eng- 
land. 

With the increase of its funds through the bequest from Stephen 
Salisbury, the Society was able in 1908 to take positive steps regarding 
the erection of a new building. Therefore, the Society purchased a lot, 
formerly part of the Salisbury estate, bounded by Park Avenue, Salis- 
bury Street and Regent Street. With an area of 60,000 square feet, in the 
midst of an attractive residential neighborhood, the site has met with 
general approval. 

The building is a two-story structure of brick, with marble trimmings 
and a marble dome. The portico, with its marble columns, is modeled 
after the entrance of the first structure of the Society built in 1820. The 
building has a total capacity of about 250,000 volumes, and the lot is 
sufficiently large to allow the erection of additional bookstacks. 

The corner stone of the new library was laid October 20, 1909, and 
was ready for occupancy in October, 1910, and cost $189,000. 

It is the endeavor of President Lincoln and his associates to make the 
American Antiquarian Society "the greatest historical library of the 
country for matters pertaining to the history of the Western Hemisphere. 
To-day, poor in money as we have been, our library is so rich in material 
that no historical writer can afford to neglect it. All we wish is the means 
to complete what others have so well begun." 

Worcester Society of Antiquity 

THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUITY was incorporated in April, 1877. 
The purposes of the Society are to record and preserve facts, books, 
and articles relating to and illustrative of the history of Worcester. 
The Society owns real estate, free from incumbrance, to the value of about 
$60,000, and has, in addition, invested funds amounting to about $20,000. 
The building at Armory Square, occupied exclusively by the Society, con- 
tains a very interesting museum of relics of every description, relating to 
the history of Worcester and illustrating much of the history of the New 
England country since the time of the Indians. This museum is one of 
the most interesting and valuable of its kind in existence. 

In this building is also the library of the Society containing about 
25,000 volumes, many of these volumes being particularly useful to searchers 
for local historical and genealogical information. The Society has a very 
fine record of publication of ancient records, as well as its own proceedings, 
containing much valuable local historical matter. 

The museum of the Society is open to the public every afternoon 
except Sunday, from one o'clock to five. Charles T. Tatman is president 
of the Society and Ellery B. Crane, librarian. 

217 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Employers Association of Worcester County 

It is the Latest formed Organization and Starts 
Life Robustly with a Unique Creed 

THE LATEST industrial organization to be established in Worcester 
is the Employers Association of Worcester County. Its creed has 
appealed to many employers in all lines of industry and they have 
associated themselves with the organization. 

The officers and board of management are representative men of 
Worcester, employing thousands of workers. Briefly speaking, the aim 
of the Association is to foster the principles of the Open Shop and create 
the best conditions in all lines of industry in this county so that there may 
be a "strikeless Worcester." 

The Officers and Board of Managers are 

( E. I . Cross 
President, Geo. I. Alden Vice-Presidents, . A i f i ^, 

I Altred 1 nomas 

Secretary, Donald Tulloch Treasurer, Arthur W. Beaman 

Board of Managers 

Clinton S. Marshall, A. E. Newton, Earle C. Hopkins, F. R. Batchel- 
der, J. J. Higgins, John W. Harrington, Chas. E. Hildreth, John P. Coghlin, 
O. S. Kendall, Sr., Geo. W. Kilmer, Geo. M. Thompson. 

The headquarters of the Association are at the Worcester Labor 
Bureau, Worcester, Mass. 

This is the Creed of the new Association: 

1 To assist its members in their right to manage their respective busi- 
nesses in such lawful manner as they may deem proper. 

2 To prevent industrial strife. 

3 To investigate and fairly adjust, through the proper officers or 
committees, any question arising between members and their employees. 

4 To foster a feeling of confidence and goodwill on the part of em- 
ployees in their attitude towards their employers, assuring them that their 
interests are being studied and conserved. 

5 To make the headquarters of the Association the place where workers 
may discuss complaints or suggestions for their betterment with the Sec- 
retary, who shall act as intermediary, and endeavor to correct abuses and 
eliminate trouble wherever found. 

6 To foster the principle of the "Open Shop." 

7 To operate a Free Employment Office, where worthy workers may 
secure employment. 

8 To assist its members in securing efficient and desirable employees. 

9 To discuss Industrial, Legislative and Economic conditions of gen- 
eral interest. 

10 To foster among its members a spirit of co-operation, friendliness 
and progressiveness. 

218 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester Natural History Society 

THE FORMATION of the Worcester Natural History Society was 
first contemplated in 1852 as a means of improvement to the young 
men of Worcester. One of the first steps taken was to confer with the 
Young Men's Christian Association, which had been lately formed, with a 
view to a union of the two, as their objects seemed to be substantially the 
same, but owing to a clause in its by-laws that was not considered expedient. 

A meeting held in August, 1852, under the chairmanship of Hon. 
George F. Hoar, resulted in the formation of a society under the name 
of the Young Men's Library Association. The object aimed at was 
"The improvement of the young men of the city of Worcester by affording 
them intellectual and social advantages by the maintenance of a library, 
reading room and such courses of lectures and classes as may conduce to 
this end." 

The Association was fully formed in December by the election of 
Hon. Francis H. Dewey, president; George W. Bentley, vice-president; 
Hon. George F. Hoar, corresponding secretary; Nathanial Paine, record- 
ing secretary, and Henry Woodward, treasurer, along with 14 directors. 
The Association was incorporated April 16, 1853. The library was open 
to the members and the public June 18, 1853, the fee of $1 per year being 
assessed for the privilege of using it At the close of that year the com- 
mittee reported that 430 persons had availed themselves of its advan- 
tages to the extent of taking out 8,620 books or on an average of six times 
a year for every book in the library 

A reading-room was early established in connection with the library, 
and although poorly supplied in comparison with the collection of news- 
papers now open at the Public Library, was freely used by members. 

An association known as the Worcester Lyceum of Natural History 
had been formed in 1825 and made a small collection of minerals, birds, 
shells and other specimens of natural history. These have increased until 
now the building at the corner of Harvard and State streets houses 
thousands of specimens of animal and plant life and minerals. It is also 
the centre of education in natural history, for many classes meet there 
where the lessons may be illustrated by actual specimens. 

The present president is Dr. Lemuel F. Woodward, and Mrs. Ella L. 
Horr is an ideal custodian, always ready to help the seeker after informa- 
tion. 



219 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester Agricultural Society 

THE WORCESTER AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, incorporated 
in 1818, has from its formation been one of the most active of the 
many societies in the town and city. Its annual fairs or cattle shows, 
as they were formerly called, have called large numbers of visitors from all 
parts of the state. For many years these fairs were held on the Common, 
near the town and city hall. Since 1 853 they had been held on the grounds 
of the Society on Agricultural Street and now on the fair grounds at Green- 
dale, and have become much wider in their scope with special attention 
to the exhibition and trotting of racing horses, and this feature has un- 
doubtedly increased the attendance largely. 

For the past score of years the annual fair has been held in connec- 
tion with the New England Agricultural Society and is called the New 
England Fair, one of the leading gatherings of its kind in the state. 

The president of the Society is Walter D. Ross, one of the best-known 
business men of Worcester. 



Worcester County Horticultural Society 

IN 1 840 the Worcester County Horticultural Society was organized. The 
following March a petition for incorporation was granted by Governor 
Davis and March 3, 1842, the Society was incorporated. The object 
of the Society was to advance the science and encourage and improve the 
practice of horticulture. The membership fee was $1. By-laws were 
adopted May 10, 1843, and in 1846 the membership had grown to 300. 
A change in the membership was made permitting a man and wife the 
privilege of membership as well as free admission to the exhibits and free 
use of the library. 

With every succeeding year since its organization, the Society has 
been one of immense value to farmers and florists, and their weekly exhibi- 
tions are looked forward to with much pleasure. The Society has had 
many eminent men as presidents. Edward W. Breed, of Clinton, is the 
present head of the Society, and the librarian, Miss Lucy M. Coulson. 
The Society now numbers 644 members. 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester County Incorporated 
Nearly 200 Years Ago 

WORCESTER COUNTY was incorporated April 2, 1731. 
The Court House at Worcester is considered one of the finest 
in the state and to-day would cost to build and equip from $750,- 
000 to $800,000. The Worcester Jail and House of Correction would cost 
to build to-day from $500,000 to $600,000. The County also has training 
school buildings at Oakdale which are valued at $150,000, and a Jail and 
House of Correction at Fitchburg which would cost $350,000. 

The County is free from debt and December 31, 1913, had a balance 
in the treasury of $49,249.98, being the only large county in the state 
making this showing. 

The population of the County to-day is 450,000. census of 1910 was 
400,000; valuation in 1910 was $324,000,000; to-day it is probably $400,- 
000,000. 

The population of Massachusetts according to the 1910 census was 
3,366,416. It is probably 3,500,000 by this time. The state is divided 
into 14 counties, and Worcester County, has two cities, Worcester and 
Fitchburg, and 57 towns, which at that date had a total population of 
399,657. 

George W. Cook of Barre, is chairman of the Worcester County 
Commissioners. 



The Garden City 



REV. DR. ROBERT J. FLOODY is one of the pioneers in the United 
States in establishing garden cities. He has carried out the letter 
as well as the spirit of settlement work, for he lives in the very centre 
of his work on the East Side. His text for this practical sermon which 
he is working out with such excellent success is "The Boy" with a capital 
B, and with the material at hand he has in the making many of the city 
fathers of the future. 

Dr. Floody has secured by gift many an unsightly patch of land which 
he and his boys and girls have transformed with the aid of some fertilizer, 
seed and endless patience and work, into beauty spots, and while they are 
cultivating flowers and vegetables they are unconsciously cultivating 
themselves. Each year there are caucuses and political gatherings; mayors 
and aldermen are elected as well as a police chief and patrolmen. Offen- 
ders are punished in the way to hurt most the particular case in hand. 

Dr. Floody has been asked to explain his system in many cities through- 
out the United States and Canada. He is ably seconded in his work by 
Mrs. Floody. 




John D. Hibbard 

Commissioner, National Metal Trades Association 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester's Hostelries 

THE HOTEL HISTORY of Worcester is an interesting one, for ever 
since the organization of the town, a period of about 180 years, there 
has been one kept upon the location of the present Bay State House. 
On the site of the Lincoln House, now Poli's Theatre, a hotel or inn was kept 
from 1 732 to 1 784. In 1835 the Lincoln management, which occupied mostly 
the site of the "King's Arms" structure, was converted into a hotel. A 
hotel of prominence also occupied the site of the present Walker Building 
for nearly a century. 

The Exchange Hotel building, near Lincoln Square, has been occupied 
for a public hostelry since 1 785, and makes the third place in the city occu- 
pied for that purpose for over 1 00 years. At the old Jones tavern building, 
still standing at New Worcester, a hotel was kept from 1 760 to 1835. Near 
the corner of Pleasant and Moore streets, at Tatnuck, there was a 
hotel for many years from 1775. 

An old time inn was also kept on Lincoln Street prior to I 797. About 
80 years ago an inn called the Cow Tavern stood near the corner of Salis- 
bury and Forest streets and one was kept for many years during the last 
century near the Smmit at the north end. The ancient three-story struc- 
ture, until recently at the corner of Salem and Madison streets, and occu- 
pied as a tenement house, originally stood on the site of the Bay State 
House, being the first hotel then rebuilt in 1722, and remaining there over 
90 years. The building was enlarged and altered several times and in 
1854 it was removed to give place to the present structure, open to the 
public in 1857. 

The old Exchange Hotel was first erected in 1 784, and has since been 
occupied by many prominent men of the country. For more than half of 
the first century of this house, it was the leading hotel of the town, and 
the one place where all distinguished travelers stopped to refresh "man 
and beast." General Washington took his breakfast at this house on his 
passage through Worcester in 1 789, and Lafayette also stopped there at 
one time. 

The Exchange Hotel is the oldest hotel in the city, though hotels 
were first started in other localities before this one was built. This 
structure, which still retains very much the same outward appearance 
as it always has borne, minus the piazza and a few slight changes, 
was erected for a hotel in 1 784 at or shortly after the close of the Revo- 
lutionary War. It was built by Nathan Patch, who was a very extensive 
owner of land. He came from Ipswich to Worcester in 1760. He resided 
and kept a hotel here for several years. The first name by which this public 
house was for many years known was the patriotic one of United States 
Arms. Mr. Patch relinquished the hotel about 1793 to William Barker 

223 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



who kept it until 1803 from which time Samuel Johnson kept it until he 
died in 1807. 

Then Col. Reuben Sikes from Connecticut, the celebrated stage 
proprietor, purchased the estate and managed it until he died in 1824. He 
made this hotel the leading one in Worcester. It was the grand centre of 
the arrival and departure of the stages of all the different lines connecting 
the town with all sections of the county and state. Col. Sikes and his 
partner, Levi Pease, were proprietors of the first stage line, Boston and 
New York via Worcester, which they began to operate 1 783. Sikes changed 
the name of the hotel to Sikes Coffee and Stage House. They continued 
to 1866. Samuel B. Thomas from Brookfield, kept the hotel sixteen years. 
He changed the name to Thomas Exchange Coffee House and later to 
Thomas Temperance Exchange. His son-in-law, P. W. Waite, succeeded 
him, who ran the place fifteen years and called it just Temperance Ex- 
change and ever since 1855 or 1856 has been known as Exchange Hotel. 
Stephen Taft and Samuel Banister were the next proprietors. Mr. Banister 
ran it until 1865. 

Russell Lamb had the property eight years until 1 874 and Aaron Parker, 
Luke Baker and W. F. Weeks to 1878. E. L. Kennen took it and kept it 
until 1887. This hotel was the leading hotel of the town and county. 
Distinguished travelers invariably stopped here. 

General Washington breakfasted at the house October 23, I 789, while 
on his tour through New England. General Lafayette slept in the house 
in Room No. 15, now changed to No. 35, and he also breakfasted in the 
house the morning of June 15, 1825. 

A sign which bore the inscription in gilt letters attracted much atten- 
tion from passers by, reads, "This Hotel has been open to the public 
continuously since 1 784. " 

Washington's Visit to Exchange Hotel 

On June 23, 1775 Washington left Philadelphia on horseback and 
traveled in that manner to Cambridge, Mass. He arrived in Worcester 
early in the morning and proceeded to the Exchange Hotel where he 
remained for breakfast. 

General Washington revisited Worcester in 1 789 and remained at 
the Exchange Hotel, then known as the United States Arms. Information 
was that Washington would be in town the next morning. A large number 
of the most respected citizens paraded before sunrise on horseback, and 
went as far as the Leicester Line and welcomed him and escorted him into 
the town. He stopped at the United States Arms. The desk on which he 
wrote a letter is still preserved at the Exchange Hotel as a historical me- 
mento of Washington's visit at the place. After breakfast he proceeded 
on his way to Boston on horseback. 

The old hotel which stood at the corner of Main and Mechanic 
streets was built in 1791, and three structures have occupied the site. 

15 225 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The one first called the United States was built in 1818, and was the lead- 
ing stage house of the times. It was a common thing before the opening 
of the railroads to see from 30 to 40 stages arriving and departing from in 
front of this place. 

The Bancroft Hotel 

IT'S A FAR CRY from the early Worcester inns of I 722 and the old 
Exchange Hotel in which George Washington stopped on his memora- 
ble visit to Worcester to the modern hostelry on Franklin Street. It 
is claimed for the Bancroft Hotel that it is the pioneer Metropolitan Hotel 
of the world, typifying results accruing from co-operative construction. 
It is also claimed that a new world's record has been established for the 
operation of a 500 horsepower plant with a total consumption of less than 
five tons of coal a day of 24 hours. This for a 300-room hotel costing over 
one million dollars. 

The length and breadth of America has contributed to the equipment 
of this hotel, and in it are to be found the most modern and thoroughly 
tested machinery for its gigantic housekeeping on a sort of glorified scale. 
The ease with which every luxury one can think of and some which are not 
dreamed of, is forthcoming, is almost uncanny. To begin with, in the 
kitchen, which is the heart of every home, the centre from which issues the 
material for the making of brain and brawn, the culinary activities are 
carried on under the most approved conditions. There are fans in motion 
continuously to remove smoke, steam, hot air and odors which are carried 
up and discharged above the roof. 

The ventilation system means not only supplying sufficient fresh air, 
but supplying a superior quality of air, washed of its impurities until it is 
as fresh as the atmosphere after a rainstorm, and heated or cooled to the 
most desirable temperature. Meanwhile the warm, stale air has been 
removed. A vacuum plant eliminates the dust problem. A refrigerating 
plant sends brine through pipes into the various rooms to be cooled, and 
by it also the ice cream is made and hardened, also the rapid freezing of 
water in molds for the serving of grape fruit. This has been pronounced 
by competent engineers to be the very last word in hotel refrigeration. 

The making of ice is another process, made in crystal-like blocks from 
distilled water furnished by the condensation of the steam used in the 
kitchen equipment, requiring high pressure steam in jacket kettles, cooled, 
filtered and pre-cooled before entering the cans. 

To the Bancroft falls the distinction of being the first hotel in the 
world to install the icy-hot beverage containers, a vacuum pitcher which 
keeps its contents as hot as when put in, indefinitely, and cold if put in 
cold. The pitchers are attractive table service. Rollaway screens oper- 
ated like a rolltop desk are used throughout the building. 

Among the electric motor appliances in the kitchen in the basement 
are potato peelers and washers, soup strainers, dish washers, food choppers 
and ice cream freezers. The print shop, also in the basement, includes a 

227 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



motor-driven pony press and cutter. The laundry on the top floor has 
motors to drive the various machines. There are two plunger passenger 
elevators, one for employees and one for freight, two of shorter rise for the 
handling of freight and ashes. Dumb waiters are operated on the same 
principle. 

The interior finish and decoration of the hotel are the delight of its 
patrons. Table linen and service are choice and distinctive, the table 
linen having been made of the heaviest linen, of special design by a firm in 
Dunfermline, Scotland, the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie. 

Many of those who financed the hotel are men engaged in the metal 
trades in Worcester, and some of them had a part in its construction. 

Chas. S. Averill is president of the Bancroft Hotel Company, and 
under his direction the hotel has brought to Worcester a distinctly metro- 
politan atmosphere. 

As one enters the lobby the effect of the Georgian design, expressed in 
fluted columns of marble which support a ceiling of white and gold, is 
strikingly beautiful. The tiled floor is covered with a half dozen handsome 
rugs woven in subdued colors, and a sympathetic note is struck in a splendid 
tapestry suspended on the wall to the left. Large urns and palms add an 
atmosphere of warmth and color against the blue veined marble pillars 
and casings and the interchanging of white and gold decorations. Great 
arm chairs and comfortable settles are placed at convenient points and 
also in the balcony overlooking the lobby. The amaranth figured velvet 
carpet runners on this balcony and the harmonizing tones of curtains 
which span the large windows fronting Franklin Street are seen in regal 
splendor under the effects of twelve chandeliers which flood the lobby 
with light. The fixtures are in antique gold metals and are inverted. To 
the right of the entrance is a fireplace of simple design. In a niche, breaking 
the severity of the wall above the mantle, is the bust of George Bancroft, 
the American historian and native of Worcester, for whom the hotel is 
named. 

To the left of the lobby is the main dining room, carried out in Louis 
XVI period of architecture. Splendid columns in white and gold support 
a ceiling of intricate design in cream, gold and buff tones. The massive 
chandeliers are fashioned after the candelabra of that period. The fur- 
nishings are of mahogany. 

The ball room is one of the most beautiful rooms in the building. Its 
color scheme is ivory and gold with draperies of gold and mauve. A suc- 
cession of mirrors are separated by green tinted lattice work. A balcony 
or messanine floor surrounds the room, and the clustered lights of the 
chandeliers are encased by thousands of glass prisms which flash all the 
colors of the spectrum. 

Leading from the balcony is the ladies' reception room finished in 
Colonial style, known as the Adams period. The curtains are of Nile 
green with under draperies and buff shades of silk taffeta. On one side of 
the main entrance are stairs descending to the Colonial dining room and 
on the other side to the grill room, bar, barber shop, etc. 

228 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The sample rooms for the use of commercial travelers are a fine example 
of convenience and the 320 guests' rooms are marvels of artistic treatment 
in design and coloring. 

The bridal suites must be seen to be appreciated. They are splendid 
specimens of modern art in hotel building. The bedsteads and dressing 
tables are ivory finished with designs of carved roses in relief against a 
background of woven cane. There are no other decorations besides the 
garlands of roses and festoons of entwined leaves. These are enhanced 
by carpets of deep rose, and walls and ceilings of gray and light buff. 

The lighting of this hotel has been worked out with mathematical 
precision, for a combination of best service and attractive designing. 
The globes of the lamps in the main diningroom are of pure alabaster and 
the exterior system of lighting gives a brilliant illumination to Franklin 
and Portland streets. 

The Bancroft Welcome — Make Yourself at Home 

Let the guest sojourning here know that in this home our life is simple. 
What we cannot afford we do not offer, but what good cheer we can give, 
we give gladly. We make no strife for appearance's sake. We will not 
swerve from our path. 

Know also, friend, that we live a life of labor, that we may not neglect 
it. Therefore, if, at times, we separate ourselves from you, do you occupy 
yourself according to your heart's desire, being sure that no slight to your 
presence is intended. 

For, while you are with us, we would have you enjoy the blessings 
of a home, health, love and freedom, and we pray that you may find the 
final blessing of life — peace. 

We will not defer to you in opinion, or ask you to defer to us. What 
you think you shall say, if you wish, without giving offense. What we 
think we also say believing that the crystal, Truth, has many aspects, 
and that Love is large enough to encompass them all. 

In this house you may meet those who are not of your own sort. 
They may differ from you in nationality, birth, position, possessions, edu- 
cation, and affinity. But we are maintaining here a small part of the 
world's great future democracy. We ask you, therefore, courtesy and 
tolerance for all alike. 

And, on these stern terms, though you be young or old, proud or 
plain, rich or poor, resting here you are a partaker of our love, and we 
give you glad welcome. 

The chief hostelries and clubs in Worcester are The Bancroft, The 
Warren, Bay State House, Hotel Pleasant, New Park Hotel, The Stan- 
dish, Worcester Auto Club, Worcester Club, Tatnuck Club, State Mutual 
Restaurant, Worcester Country Club, Commonwealth Club. 



229 




President, National Metal Trades Association 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



National Metal Trades Association 

Why is it? What is it? 

Who is it? What does it do? 

THE NATIONAL METAL TRADES ASSOCIATION was organ- 
ized in 1899 by a number of representative manufacturers who 
realized the absolute necessity for national united action on the part 
of employers in handling the unjust collective demands of organized labor 
and in treating with the labor question in general. 

Its declaration of principles is as follows: 

We, the Members of the National Metal Trades Association, declare 
the following to be our principles, which shall govern us in our relations 
with our employees: 

Since we, as employers, are responsible for the work turned out by our 
workmen, we must have full discretion to designate the men we consider 
competent to perform the work and to determine the conditions under 
which that work shall be prosecuted, the question of the competency of 
the men being determined solely by us. While disavowing any intention 
to interfere with the proper functions of labor organizations, we will not 
admit of any interference with the management of our business. 

Disapproving absolutely of strikes and lockouts, the members of this 
Association will not arbitrate any question with men on strike; neither will 
this Association countenance a lockout on any arbitrable question unless 
arbitration has failed. 

No discrimination will be made against any man because of his mem- 
bership in any society or organization. Every workman who elects to 
work in a shop will be required to work peaceably and harmoniously with 
all his fellow employees. 

The number of apprentices, helpers and handymen to be employed 
will be determined solely by the employer. 

Employers shall be free to employ their work people at wages mutually 
satisfactory. We will not permit employees to place any restriction on the 
management, methods or production of our shops, and will require a fair 
day s work for a fair day's pay. 

Employees will be paid by the hourly rate, by premium system, piece 
work or contract, as the employers may elect. 

It is the privilege of the employee to leave our employ whenever he 
sees fit and it is the privilege of the employer to discharge any workman 
when he sees fit. 

The above principles being absolutely essential to the successful 
conduct of our business, they are not subject to arbitration. 

In case of disagreement concerning matters not covered by the fore- 
going declaration, we advise our members to meet their employees, either 

231 




Herbert H. Rice, Indianapolis 

Nominated for the Presidency of the N. M. T. A. for 1914-1915 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



individually or collectively, and endeavor to adjust the difficulty on a fair 
and equitable basis. In case of inability to reach a satisfactory adjust- 
ment, we advise that they submit the question to arbitration by a board 
composed of six persons, three to be chosen by the employer and three to 
be chosen by the employee or employees. In order to receive the benefits 
of arbitration, the employee or employees must continue in the service and 
under the orders of the employer pending a decision. 

In case any member refuses to comply with this recommendation he 
shall be denied the support of this Association unless it shall approve the 
action of said member. 

Hours and wages being governed by local conditions shall be arranged 
by the local Associations in each district. 

In the operation of piece work, premium plan or contract system now 
in force or to be extended or established in the future, this Association will 
not countenance any conditions of wages which are not just, or which will 
not allow a workman of average efficiency to earn at least a fair wage. 

Adopted June 18, 1901, 

Officers and Administrative Council 

The Officers and Administrative Council of the National 
Metal Trades Association are : 

President, W. A. LAYMAN, 
Wagner Electric Mfg. Co., St. Louis, Mo. 

First Vice-President, L. H. KITTREDGE, 
The Peerless Motor Car Co., Cleveland, Ohio 

Second Vice-President, HERBERT H. RICE, 
The Waverley Co., Indianapolis, Ind. 

Treasurer, F. C. CALDWELL, 
H. W. Caldwell & Son Co., Chicago, 111. 

Commissioner, JOHN D. HIBBARD, 
People's Gas Building, Chicago, 111. 

Secretary, HOMER D. SAYRE, 
People's Gas Building, Chicago, 111. 

GEO. MESTA. 
Mesta Machine Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. 

STEVENSON TAYLOR, 

Quintard Iron Works, New York 

W. M. TAYLOR. 
The Chandler & Taylor Co., Indianapolis, Ind. 



^33 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



C. E. WHITNEY, 
Whitney Manufacturing Co., Hartford, Conn. 

P. O. GEIER, 
The Cincinnati Milling Machine Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

JOHN W. O'LEARY. 
A. J. O'Leary & Son Co., Chicago, 111. 

M. H. BARKER, 
The American Machine & Tool Co., Boston, Mass. 

F. K. COPELAND, 
Sullivan Machinery Co., Chicago, 111. 

JOHN W. HARRINGTON, 
Harrington & Richardson Arms Co., Worcester, Mass. 

PAUL B. KENDIG, 
The Seneca Falls Manufacturing Co., Seneca Falls, N. Y. 

J. H. SCHWACKE, 
Wm. Sellers & Co., Inc., Philadelphia, Pa. 

HENRY D. SHARPE. 
Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Co., Providence, R. I. 

W. H. VAN DERVOORT, 
Root & Van Dervoort Engineering Co., East Moline, 111. 



Branch Offices 
National Metal Trades Association 

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 

309 Oliver Building, 141 Milk Street. 

Secretary, W. H. WEINGAR. 

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 

139 North Clark Street. 

Secretary, PAUL BLATCHFORD. 

CINCINNATI, OHIO, 
705 Elm Street. 
Secretary, JOHN M MANLEY. 

CLEVELAND, OHIO, 

310 New England Building. 

Secretary, PHILIP FRANKEL. 



234 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



HARTFORD. CONNECTICUT, 
323 Capitol Avenue. 

Secretary, J. H. LAY. 

INDIANAPOLIS. INDIANA, 
218 State Life Building. 

Secretary, A. J. ALLEN. 

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, 
317 Malley Building. 

Secretary, GEORGE P. STEPHAN, JR. 

NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY, 
30 Church Street, 
New York City 

Secretary, H C. HUNTER. 

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, 
503 Second National Bank Building. 

Secretary, D. H. CREIDER. 

RHODE ISLAND, 
420 Butler Ex., Providence, R. I. 

Secretary, JOSEPH A. HOLLAND 

ST LOUIS, MISSOURI, 
Odd Fellows Building. 

Secretary, J. F. HEM. 

SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, 
12 Court House Place. 

Secretary, F. F. SQUIRE. 

TRI-CITY BRANCH, 

Moline Theatre Building, 

Moline, Illinois 

Secretary, H. A. JANSEN. 

WORCESTER. MASSACHUSETTS, 
44 Front Street 

Secretary, DONALD TULLOCH. 



235 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Melville H. Barker — the National's 
Grand Old Man 

MELVILLE HAZEN BARKER was born at Bridgton, Maine. 
When about three years old his family moved to Waukesha, Wis- 
consin, and four years later they moved to Chicago, where he 
attended the grammar and high school. He then attended the State 
University at Madison, Wisconsin, taking the architectural course for one 
term. 

From there Mr. Barker went to work in an architect's office in Chicago 
where he stayed until the death of his father, a year later, when the family 
moved to Lawrence, Mass. 

Mr. Barker entered the repair department of the Everett Mills, 
which was formerly the old Lawrence machine shop, as assistant to the 
mechanical draftsman. From there he went to Franklin, N. H. t and 
started a picture frame and furniture business, fitting up his shop himself, 
and had just got well started when the building and everything he had 
was burned. He again returned to Lawrence and commenced work at the 
Atlantic Cotton Mills, in the repair department, as second hand. During 
this period he married Sarah A. Winchell, of Acton, Maine. Three chil- 
dren were born to them. 

In 1874 he accepted a position as mechanical engineer with the Ameri- 
can Tool & Machine Co., of Boston, which position he held for 20 years, 
when he was made general manager of the company, which office he now 
holds. 

About 1897 the National Metal Trades Association was formed, and 
Mr. Barker became a charter member and was elected on the Adminis- 
trative Council that year. He has been a member of that governing body 
ever since. 

After serving one year as vice-president, he was elected president in 
March, 1907. At the expiration of his term of office he was made an 
honorary member of the Administrative Council, which office has been 
tendered to him every year. 

Mr. Barker is a member of the Massachusetts Charitable Association 
of Boston, Boston City Club, Boston Engineers Club, Boston Art Club, 
The Engineers and Machinery Clubs of New York, the Masons, Odd 
Fellows and Knights of Honor. 

His sound advice, genial companionship and steadfast friendship have 
endeared him to the entire membership, which has knighted him the 
Grand Old Man of the National. 



237 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



he National Machine Tool Builders 
issociation 



As 

THE NATIONAL Machine Tool Builders Association was organized 
in New York City on June 12, 1901, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. 
Its Charter members were: 

American Tool Works Co., Cincinnati, Ohio 
P. Blaisdell & Co., Worcester, Mass. 
Bradford Machine Tool Co., Cincinnati, Ohio 
W. P. Davis Machine Co., Rochester, N. Y. 
Draper Machine Tool Co., Worcester, Mass. 
Fairbanks Machine Tool Co., Springfield, Ohio 
Flather & Co., Inc., Nashua, N. H. 
Greaves, Klusman & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio 
Hamilton Machine Tool Co., Hamilton, Ohio 
Hendey Machine Co., Torrington, Conn. 
R. K. LeBlond Machine Tool Co., Cincinnati, Ohio 
Lodge & Shipley Machine Tool Co., Cincinnati, Ohio 
Prentice Bros Co., Worcester, Mass. 
Rahn, Mayer & Carpenter Co., Cincinnati, Ohio 
F. E. Reed Co., Worcester, Mass. 
Schumacher & Boye, Cincinnati, Ohio 
Springfield Machine Tool Co., Springfield, Ohio 
Its membership now totals 1 70 machine tool concerns. 
Its first officers were: 
President, Joseph Flather, Flather & Co., Inc. 

First Vice-President, William Lodge, Lodge & Shipley Machine Tool Co. 
Second Vice-President, W. P. Davis, W. P. Davis Machine Co. 
Treasurer, Enoch Earle, P. Blaisdell & Co. 
Secretary, P. E. Montanus, Springfield Machine Tool Co. 

Its present officers are: 
President, W. A. Viall, Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co., Providence, R. I. 
First Vice-President, J. B. Doan, American Tool Works Co., Cincinnati, 

Ohio. 
Second Vice-President, D. M. Wright, Henry & Wright Mfg. Co., Hartford, 

Conn. 
Treasurer, A. E. Newton, Reed-Prentice Co., Worcester, Mass. 
Secretary, Chas. L. Taylor, Taylor & Fenn Co., Hartford, Conn. 
General Manager, Chas. E. Hildreth, Whitcomb-Blaisdell Mch. Tool Co., 
Worcester, Mass. 

Its conventions are held semi-annually, the fall annual convention in 
New York city by constitution, the Spring semi-annual in places selected 
by ballot. 

238 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The purpose of the Association is purely educational and constructive. 
Educational in the presentation, discussion and study of subjects strictly 
germane to the industry, such as "the use of heat treated gears and ma- 
chine tools" presented last fall, also the development of cutting tools, 
besides all the varied economic problems of shop management, constructive 
in the study and formation of apprenticeship and uniform cost systems 
which have been largely adopted by its members. But above and beyond 
all, the Association has brought competitors into a close personal and 
friendly relation, which, as the acquaintance grows, immeasurably dispels 
old distrusts and antipathies and is increasingly breeding confidence and 
respect. 

National Founders Association 

THE NATIONAL FOUNDERS ASSOCIATION was organized at 
the Hotel Imperial, New York, January 28, 1898. by a small group 
of foundry proprietors who were of one mind in the belief that the 
only way to protect their interests was through co-operation in an organ- 
ization, which they proceeded to establish. At the time the National 
Founders Association was started, the National Iron Molders Union had 
been in existence for 40 years and had been constantly growing more 
powerful, and the number of non-union or open shop foundries in the 
United States was exceedingly limited. 

Many firms which refused to submit to the unjust dictation of the 
Molders Union had been financially ruined and put out of business, and 
only foundries which were exceedingly strong financially and well en- 
trenched otherwise dared to oppose the Molders Union single handed. 

During the early years of its history, practically all of the members 
of the Founders Association conducted union shops, but the Open Shop 
movement has since prevailed, mainly as the result of the work of the 
National Founders Association. 

At the present time there are 532 foundry plants, listing about 30,000 
molders, core-makers and molding machine operators, and these, along 
with cupola tenders, molders' helpers, chippers and laborers, would run up 
into hundreds of thousands of workmen employed by this Association's 
members. The General Electric Co., all of whose foundries are in the 
National Founders Association, alone employ a total of 80,000 men. 

The principles of the National Founders Association are practically 
the same as those of its sister organization, the National Metal Trades 
Association. 

The officers for 1913-14 are: 
President, William H. Barr, Buffalo. 
Vice-President, Otto H. Falk, Milwaukee. 
Commissione , A. E. McClintock, Chicago. 
Secretary, J. M. Taylor, Chicago. 



239 




-0 

"3 

D 

O 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester Boys' Club 



THE WORCESTER BOYS' CLUB was organized in 1889 and 
incorporated in 1893 for the "purpose of maintaining rooms for the 
improvement of the social, physical and mental nature of boys." 

Until 1906 it had no building of its own and carried on its work 
in rented rooms. Then a building, which had been a sort of wayfarer's 
lodging house, was bought and in 1907 it was remodeled and an addition 
built for the purposes of the Club, which takes hundreds of boys of the 
poorer class off the streets and then guides them to their betterment — 
socially, physically, mentally and morally. 

In the building at Madison Square are game rooms, a small gymnasium, 
a basketball court, a small auditorium, reading rooms, and rooms for edu- 
cational and group club purposes. Its activities include: — gymnasium 
instruction, shower baths, athletic and basketball leagues, a savings bank, 
story-telling, educational and industrial classes, group clubs, talks and 
entertainments. All its instructors and workers are trained men and 
women. Its physicians examine the boys and in co-operation with the 
District Nursing Society and the Associated Charities, and by the use of 
its own gymnasium, physical ailments and ills are corrected and poorly- 
nourished boys properly fed. 

The Boys' Club attracts boys to it, not because they want to learn 
how to build up and to care for their bodies, or to bathe, or to read good 
books, particularly, or to learn anything, or to be made into the right kind 
of men, citizens and fathers, but for fun and recreation and companionship 
with others. But in getting their fun, they assimilate other ideas and 
develop a desire for the gymnasium, the library, the educational classes and 
the other activities of the club, which are of so much benefit to them. 

The club is non-sectarian. All boys are welcomed regardless of race, 
color or creed. There are 23 nationalities with all shades of religious 
belief, all playing and working in harmony and with common "club 
spirit." 

The building is used to its limit of usefulness, and is overcrowded. 
At the time this article is being written, a movement of the citizens is 
under way to raise money for the erection of a modern and adequate 
plant, which, doubtless, will meet with the success it deserves. 

The officers of the club are: President, Reginald Washburn; Vice- 
President, Henry L. Miller; Secretary, Mrs. Charles M. Thayer; Treasurer, 
Ernest G. Adams; and they, with Maurice F. Reidy, George A. Gaskill, 
Harry G. Stoddard and Jerome R. George, make up its governing board. 
David W. Armstrong is the efficient superintendent. 



1 6 241 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



"Norton Safety First Association" — First 
of its Kind 

THE "NORTON Safety First Association," inaugurated March 20, 
is one of the first organizations of the kind to be established in the 
United States. It is in line with many other measures of a bene- 
ficial character for the benefit of workmen, taken by this member of the 
National Metal Trades Association and in common with other firms. It 
is work of this nature which the Metal Trades Association has been doing 
for years, and the Norton Co. and Norton Grinding Company are to be 
congratulated in taking the initiative in organization of this society, which 
must be of great benefit to the workmen in eliminating accidents, as well 
as to the firms. 

For a number of years the National Metal Trades Association has 
performed yeoman service in this respect, and even had its safety factory 
inspector devote several years in visiting every firm connected with the 
Association throughout the United States and Canada, inspecting their 
workshops, reporting on the same and making suggestions for the preven- 
tion of accidents. 

Charles L. Allen was elected president of the new society and every 
Norton employee who belongs will be furnished with a booklet containing 
20 safety rules, all of which are of extreme importance in every workshop 
and factory. It does not cost the employee anything to belong to the 
society. 

Rewards are to be offered by the Norton Co. and Norton Grinding Co. 
for special services, for valuable safety suggestions, or for actual prevention 
of accidents. 

The Norton Safety Rules are so applicable to all employees that we 
reprint them here for the benefit of those who may desire to adopt them: — 

Be careful at all times. You may injure yourself or others by care- 
lessness. 

Use extra care wherever you see a red disc. 

Report any dangers you see to your foreman. 

If there are any safety devices or guards on your machine, be sure they 
are in place before starting. 

Never start a machine until you are sure everything is in order. 

Always wear goggles when instructed to do so. 

Do not wear clothing with ragged sleeves. These may get caught in 
machinery. 

Do not oil shafting while in motion, without orders from your foreman. 

Wrestling or fooling is strictly forbidden. 

You are strictly forbidden to throw anything out through windows. 

Before getting on any staging, make sure that it is strong enough to 
hold you. 

242 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Do not get on or off an elevator while it is in motion. 

Do not use a ladder that has no safety points or feet. 

Do not use tools with mushroomed or burred ends. 

Do not use hammers with cracked or broken handles. 

Do not pile material so that it can fall. 

Throw all waste and rubbish into cans provided for that purpose. 

Protect the property against fire. A fire in this plant may put every 
man out of work. 

Help keep the plant clean. 

If you are injured, no matter how little, report to your foreman at once. 
Neglect of proper attention to small injuries may cause blood poisoning 
and a loss of wages to you. 



How the Big Men Dare and Do 

We know the big men dare, and the big men do; they dream great 
dreams, which they make come true. They bridge the river and link the 
plains, and gird the land with their railway trains; they make the desert 
break forth in bloom, they send a cataract through a flume to turn the 
wheels of a thousand mills; and bring the coin to a nation's tills; the big 
men work, and the big men plan, and, helping themselves, help their fellow 
man. And the cheap men yelp at their carriage wheels, as the small dogs 
bark at the big dogs ' heels. The big men sow while the cheap men sleep, 
and when they go to their fields to reap, the cheap men cry, "We must 
have a share of all the grain that they harvest there! These men are 
pirates who sow and reap and plan and build while we are asleep! We 11 
legislate till they lose their hair! We'll pass new laws that would strip 
them bare! We'll tax them right and we'll tax them left till of their 
plunder they are bereft; we'll show these men that we all despise their 
skill, their courage and enterprise!'' So the small men yap at the big 
men's heels; the fake reformers with uplift spiels, the four-eyed dreamers 
with theories fine, which bring them maybe three cents a line, the tin- 
horn grafters who always yearn to collar coin that their do not earn. And 
the big men sigh as they go their way — We fear they'll balk at the whole 
blamed thing some day! — Walt Mason. 



243 




Amos Whitney 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Amos Whitney 



THE LIFE OF Amos Whitney, of Hartford, Conn., is so closely 
interwoven with the history of the firm of Pratt & Whitney, of 
which he was one of the founders, that it is impossible to give a 
record of the one without including the other. It is a well-known fact 
that the making of firearms is one of the oldest arts in the fine machinery 
line, in fact, the armorer existed before the clockmaker, and there is no 
doubt that the Pratt & Whitney Company is the oldest teacher in the 
methods employed in the manufacture of modern firearms. 

But the work in this direction was decidedly the smallest part of 
the improvement and progress the firm has made in the evolution of ma- 
chinists' small tool business. 

The principles involved in this method of manufacture, and the skill 
and ingenuity displayed laid the foundation for the production of an 
immense variety of small machine work, such as sewing machines, type- 
writers, automobiles, etc., while it has played quite as important a part in 
the manufacture of large machines. It is no exaggeration to say that this 
has been a most important factor in developing the prosperity of the 
entire country. 

Amos Whitney was born at Biddeford, Maine, October 8, 1832. His 
parents moved to Lawrence, where he was apprenticed at the age of 14 
years to learn the machinist's trade with the Essex Machine Co. Before 
locating in Lawrence he was educated in the common schools. 

His apprenticeship lasted three years, after which he served another 
year as a journeyman and then accepted a position in Colt's pistol factory 
in Hartford. 

In 1852 Francis A. Pratt came to Hartford and took a position at the 
Colt factory. 

In 1854 Mr. Whitney and Mr. Pratt accepted important positions at 
the Phoenix Iron Works in Hartford. 

The two young men were closely associated, Mr. Pratt as superin- 
tendent and Mr. Whitney as contractor. 

In 1860 Messrs. Whitney & Pratt rented a room on Potter Street, and 
this was the commencement of the Pratt & Whitney Company of to-day. 

Mr. Whitney next figured in the organization of the Whitney Mfg. 
Co. of Hartford, one of the most successful firms in that city of industries. 
Mr. Whitney, honored and respected by machine manufacturers through- 
out the country, is over 80 years old, is secretary and treasurer of this 
company. Associated with him is Clarence E. Whitney, president and 
manager of the company, member of the Administrative Council of the 
National Metal Trades Association and leading advocate of the Open 
Shop in Hartford. 



245 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Lucian Sharpe — Who Built up One Great 
Eastern Industry 

LUCIAN SHARPE was born in Providence, March 29. 1830, and 
lived there all his life except for a small portion of his childhood. 
His taste for mechanics led him, on graduating from high school, 
to become an apprentice with J. R. Brown, who had a small shop in Provi- 
dence where he did particularly fine work — built tower clocks, made and 
repaired watches, clocks, surveying and mathematical instruments. 

At this time Mr. Sharpe studied the French language in order that he 
might read the best works on watchmaking, and his familiarity with that 
language was afterwards of much use to him in building up the foreign 
business enjoyed by his company. 

Two years after the completion of Mr. Sharpe's five-year term of 
apprenticeship, a partnership was formed between the two men, Mr. 
Brown recognizing the ability of young Sharpe and offering him at a 
nominal figure a half interest in the business. The new firm was known 
as J. R. Brown & Sharpe, and occupied a floor space of 60 x 30 feet, employ- 
ing only a few men. 

In 1858 the firm became the manufacturers of the Wilcox & Gibbs 
sewing machine, and still retain that contract. It was this perhaps more 
than any other circumstance that led into tool building. Tools and special 
machinery found useful in manufacturing sewing machines were first built 
by them for their own use, and then for others. Mr. Sharpe was associated 
first with Mr. Brown and later with Mr. Darling, both of whom were very 
fine mechanics. 

One of Mr. Sharpe's strongest points, perhaps, was his faculty of 
putting responsibility squarely upon the shoulders of those holding the 
higher positions in the works, and then letting them very much alone, so 
far as dictation or interference was concerned. He held them responsible 
for results only, and left to those in whom he had confidence the free choice 
of means by which that success was attained. 

It would be extremely difficult to name a man who has done more 
than Mr. Sharpe for the advance of the art of manufacturing and for 
machine tool construction in America. 

Since Mr. Sharpe's death, which took place October 17, 1899, at sea, 
while on his way home from Europe, whither he had gone chiefly on account 
of his health, the great business that he was one of the founders of and the 
principal one in building up to its present greatness, has been carried on 
by his son, Henry D. Sharpe, ably assisted by Richmond and W. A. Viall 
and others that the elder Sharpe had gathered around him from time to 
time. 

Henry D. Sharpe is a former president of the National Metal Trades 
Association, and has been for a number of years extremely interested in 
the various departments of work engaged in by the Association, as well as a 
staunch defender of its faith. 

247 






1 * 







Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Samuel Elbridge Hildreth 

SAMUEL ELBRIDGE HILDRETH was born in Brattleborough, 
Vermont, December 8, 1829. His mother was of that family whose 

most famous representative, Elbridge Gerry, was in public life from 
1773 to his death in 1814, and was successively a signer of the Declaration 
of Independence, governor of Massachusetts and vice-president of the 
United States. 

When the subject of this sketch was two years of age his parents 
returned to Chesterfield, New Hampshire, where they had formerly 
resided, and where he remained until the death of his father, three years 
later. Then an aunt took him to her home in Connecticut, where he 
remained until he was nearly sixteen years of age. At that period he came 
to this city, which was his home ever after. In the meantime his mother 
had married Jonathan Sawyer and had become a resident of Worcester. 
In this place his first work was in a printing office, but six months of that 
labor convinced the lad that composing-stick and rule were not to his 
mind, and he left the art preservative to become a worker in metals. 

He learned the machinists' trade with Alexander and Sewall Thayer 
in the old Court Mills. Afterward he worked for Samuel Flagg till 1854, 
the date of the burning of the Merrifield buildings, where the shop was 
located. Then came nearly 20 years' service with the late L. W. Pond, 
to whom he proved himself a valuable helper. In this business, which 
grew to be one of the largest in the country, Mr. Hildreth was an important 
factor, his mechanical ability enabling him to improve upon many appli- 
ances then in use, securing patents for improved drills and planes. He 
became Mr. Pond's foreman and finally his superintendent. 

In May, 1873, he began business for himself in buying a third interest 
in the business of P. Blaisdell & Co., and under this firm name his work 
continued to the last. His partners at the end were John P. Jones and 
Enoch Earle, their business the making of machinists' tools, in which line 
they had few if any superiors. 

Mr. Hildreth's entrance upon public life was in 1866, when he repre- 
sented Ward 3 in the Common Council. The next two years he was an 
alderman. In 1872 he was sent as representative to the General Court, 
and in 1882 he was elected mayor of the city as an out-and-out Republican. 
In his administration he manifested the same practical sense which had 
characterized the conduct of his own business, and retired from the office 
with credit and honor. His next public position was as a member of the 
School Board, to which he was elected from Ward 7 in 1887, and in which 
he continued until his death. His devotion to all the details of this office 
was noteworthy. Perhaps no member of the School Board ever gave so 
much attention to the subject of manual training as did the ex-mayor, and 
Worcester owes much to him for the establishment of this system. 

249 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Mr. Hildreth was a member of many organizations, including the 
order of United American Workmen. His death occurred after a brief 
illness, June 25, 1893. 

Mr. Hildreth married in 1852 Miss Matilda Coleman Howe. Charles 
Elbridge, his son, continues in the business relations owned by his father, 
and has for many years been a prominent figure in the National Metal 
Trades Association, the National Machine Tool Builders Association and 
many Worcester civic bodies. 



Joseph Flather 



JOSEPH FLATHER was born in Bradford, England, April 1, 1837. 
At eleven years of age he started work in the repair shop of a large 
mill, where he remained for one year. He then served an apprentice- 
ship of seven years with his uncles, manufacturers of woolen machinery. 

At the expiration of his term he came to America and found work at 
the United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. In 1859 he 
went to Nashua, N. H., and entered the employ of a company building 
sewing machines. At the breaking out of the Civil War he worked in 
various cities on guns and gun tools. 

In 1867 he with others started a business in Nashua to manufacture 
sewing machines and lathes, but the times were so dissimilar that it was 
soon dissolved, and the Flather Brothers — Joseph, William J. and Edward 
— formed a company known as Flather & Co., for the manufacture of 
lathes. After several changes of location and with varying success, the 
company built a wooden building on the site of the present shop. This 
building was destroyed by fire. Late in 1876 the shop was rebuilt of brick, 
and this section is still a part of the present works. 

This company was one of the first to obtain foreign orders for machine 
tools, the result of exhibiting their product in Philadelphia in 1876. This 
foreign trade, started at that time, has been a large and profitable part of 
their business. 

One of the specially attractive features of the Flather lathe was the 
large hollow hand spindles, and another the "patent feed," so-called, 
patented in 1885. 

In 1901 W. J. Flather withdrew, and the company was incorporated 
as Flather & Co., Inc., with Joseph Flather as president and treasurer, 
which offices he held until his death. 

When the National Machine Tool Builders Association was formed, 
in 1901, Mr. Flather was honored by being elected as its first president, 
which office he held for two years. 

The business is now successfully conducted by Joseph Flather's son, 
Herbert L. Flather, for many years a member of this Branch and now on 
its Executive Board. 



251 




Edwin T. Marble 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Samuel Winslow — Manufacturer — Street 
Railway Organizer — Mayor of Worcester 

SAMUEL WINSLOW was born in Newton, February 28, 1827. He 
was a descendant from that family which was prominent in the 

early history of Plymouth colony. Educated in the common schools, 
he was in his boyhood employed in the manufacture of cotton machinery, 
and at the age of 20 he was made foreman of a large shop. 

In 1855 he came to Worcester, and with his brother, Seth C. Winslow, 
started a machine shop in the Merrifield Building on Cypress Street. In 
1857 they began to manufacture skates, which industry is still continued. 
After the death of his brother, in 1 87 1 , Mr Winslow carried on the business 
alone until the formation of the Winslow Skate Manufacturing Company, 
in 1886, of which corporation he became president and treasurer. 

Mr. Winslow was a member of the Common Council, next an alder- 
man, later in the Legislature in 1873-74. In December, 1885, he was 
elected mayor of Worcester and served four years, with one exception a 
longer term than any of his predecessors. 

Mr. Winslow was early identified with the Mechanics Association, 
and served it as trustee, vice-president and president. He was a director 
of the Citizen's National Bank, and president from 1889 until his death 
He was also a trustee of the People's Savings Bank. During his last years 
he was interested in organizing and developing the electric railway system of 
Central Massachusetts. He died October 21, 1894. 

Col. Samuel E. Winslow, of the Samuel Winslow Skate Manufacturing 
Co., Member of Congress from the Worcester District, son of the origi- 
nator of this industry, is president and treasurer of the company. 

Edwin T. Marble — Splendid Type of 
Worcester Mechanic 

BORN IN THE neighboring town of Sutton, in 1827, Hon. E. T. Mar- 
ble, was until his death, July 3, 1910, president and treasurer of 
the Curtis & Marble Machine Company. He was an active partici- 
pant in the oversight of a business which is regarded as one of the most 
staple in Worcester. 

Mr. Marble began his work as a machinist nearly 70 years ago. It was 
in the year 1845 that he began apprenticeship with Albert Curtis. He was 
then 18 years of age. There were four of them who boarded together; one 
was from Charlton; another from Athol, and a third from Pomfret, Con- 
necticut. All of them, like himself, were from native American stock. 

The first year of his apprenticeship he earned $50.00 and his board, 
which would probably not content many young men 18 years old to-day. 
The next year he had $75.00 and the third year $125.00. On August 18, 
1848, he began as a journeyman mechanic, and received $1.50 per day. 

253 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



He continued with Mr. Curtis only two months after his apprentice- 
ship was over, and then engaged with the firm of A. & S. Thayer, after- 
wards Thayer, Houghton & Co., makers of machine tools on Union Street. 
In 1850 he went to Shelburne Falls and worked on cutlery for a year or two, 
but soon came back to Worcester and to the shop of the Thayers. In 
1859 he became superintendent of the E. C. Cleveland & Co. Machine 
Works, on Central Street, and four years later was a partner with Mr. 
Curtis, and took full charge of the machine business, in which he was 
associated with him for over 30 years. The Curtis & Marble Machine Co. 
is now carried on by his four sons: E. H., W. C, A. C. and Charles F. 
Marble. 

Mr. Marble was 82 years old when he died. 

Blake Pump and Condenser Company 

ONE of the enterprising firms of Fitchburg is the Blake Pump and 
Condenser Co., which has recently secured patents on a new type of 
high duty condensing apparatus that is proving alike efficient and 
economical. It consists of twin vertical cylinders so designed as to com- 
bine in one machine a water circulating pump, air and vapor pump, and a 
jet condenser. To obtain high duty with jet condensers, it has been com- 
mon practice to connect a separate air and vapor pump to the condenser, 
aside from the water circulating pump, resulting in a more or less cumber- 
some apparatus, the initial and maintenance costs of which are very heavy. 

Being vertical in construction, this apparatus reduces friction to the 
minimum and the power required to operate is consequently extremely 
small. Both sides are perfectly balanced on a walking beam so that the 
weight of pistons, etc., does not in any way affect the power required, 
this being dependent entirely upon the duty performed. The construction 
is extremely high grade throughout. Tests upon installations now in 
operation show exceptionally high efficiency, very low maintenance 
expense and a very small amount of power used to operate. This appara- 
tus, like most other valuable inventions, is the result of years of experi- 
menting, the objective point being of course to produce a machine having 
a combination of maximum simplicity, durability, efficiency and economy. 

It is stated on authority that this combination has the distinction of 
being the only combined high vacuum twin vertical air pump and jet 
condenser on the market at the present time. 

The officers of the Company are: President, W. H. Dolan; Treasurer, 
H. E. Jennison; Secretary, R. C. Witmer. 



254 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Draper Company 



STRANGE as it may seem, to tell of the early days of the Draper 
Company it will be necessary to go back to 1 842 when the Hopedale 

Community, a religious organization, was formed in what is now 
Hopedale and then a part of Milford. The people interested began prac- 
tical operations about April 1, 1842, "with a joint stock capital of less than 
$4,000 on a worn out farm of 258 acres, in a single, time-shattered mansion 
nearly 120 years old with a few rickety out-buildings. " 

Ebenezer D. Draper (born 1813) was one of the main pillars of the 
institution until its decadence. The community seemed to flourish for 
about 14 years increasing to about 100 members and 300 inhabitants living 
in 50 houses, owning 511 acres "with a respectable array of homely but 
serviceable mills, shop and conveniences with not an idler or spendthrift 
among them." Yet in a short time the financial reports of the community 
convinced Mr. Draper and his brother George, who together owned three- 
quarters of the stock, that the community was impractical, and the busi- 
ness of the community passed into private hands. 

The business interests were taken over by Ebenezer D. and George 
Draper and formed the cornerstone of the great industrial structure they 
and their successors have erected in Hopedale. 

They paid all the debts and bought in outstanding stock at par. At 
least some of the credit for this model manufacturing town is due to the 
community of which the two Drapers were the two most prominent laymen. 

It may be interesting to know how the name of the town was ob- 
tained. The old farm first secured had always been known as Dale and 
the community added the name of Hope, making the name Hopedale. 
The names Draper and Hopedale have become synonymous. The place 
became an incorporated town April 7, 1886, named by Rev. Adin Ballou, 
who started the community. 

Gen. W. F. Draper, George A. Draper, Hon. Eben S. Draper, and 
others bear the same honorable name that has been noted in war, politics 
and philanthropy, but while being noted in all these they, by their great 
mechanical genius and business capacity, have built this wonderful in- 
dustry until to-day about 2,500 hands are employed in some of the most 
model buildings and under the best conditions obtainable anywhere. 

Hopedale has been justly named a "spotless town," containing a 
happy, prosperous people, and a town attractive in every way. 

The present officers of the company are: President, Frank J. Dutcher; 
Vice-President and Purchasing Agent, E. D. Bancroft; Treasurer, George 
A. Draper; Agent, Eben S. Draper; Assistant Agent, W. I. Stimpson; 
Southern Agent, J. D. Cloudman. 



255 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Whitin Machine Works 

PERHAPS two of the most noted examples of the early struggles that 
nearly all of Worcester County industries had to go through to get 
their business established, can be shown in the history of the Whitin 
Machine Works at Whitinsville and the Draper Company at Hopedale. 
John Crane Whitin was born March 1 , 1807. After he was nine years 
old, when not in school, he worked in the picker room of his father's mill. 
At 1 2 years of age he was placed in the repair room of the mill and worked 
there three years. In 1825 he, with his brother and father, formed the firm 
of P. Whitin & Sons to manufacture cotton goods. 

John C. naturally took care of the mechanical end of the business, and 
remembering the difficulties he had in the picker room, he decided to 
design and construct a new picking machine. In 1850 he directed his 
effort to its improvements. With two lathes, not worth more than $15 
each, and with an occasional job done in a neighboring shop he, with two 
assistants, completed the first picker in about one year. This machine 
was such a great improvement over those then in use and the demand for 
them was so great, that Mr. Whitin was encouraged to build other machines 
in the same line. This humble beginning was the starting of the now famous 
Whitin Machine Works incorporated in 1870 with John Crane Whitin as 
treasurer. When busy the firm employs 2,500 to 3,000 hands and melts in 
the foundry from 100 to 120 tons daily. 

At the head of the Company are the following: — President, C. W. 
Lasell; Treasurer and General Manager, G. Marston Whitin; Purchasing 
Agent, George B. Hamblin; Superintendent, A. H. Whipple. 



How to Play the Game of Life 

Some men are creators. They know what to do at the spur of the 
moment. Their keen eyes see through things, and they bring all their 
forces into play in the game of life. They are well balanced, tactful, quiet, 
concentrated, punctual, persevering, determined. Endowed with superb 
mental poise and calm judgment, they grasp and execute new combina- 
tions. The trackless forest recedes where they advance. Great commer- 
cial enterprises, the ushering in of a new epoch in the world's industrial 
workshop invariably originate in the brains of such. Pioneer minds! A 
sound body and clear head is the secret. — Brains. 



256 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester's Motive Power 

WORCESTER manufacturers rely on four great agencies for motive 
power: water, steam, gas and electricity, and the greatest of these 
is electricity. 

Time was when the manufacturer would not think of locating any- 
where except on a river or stream which could be utilized to turn the 
wheels of his factory, and many communities to-day owe their foundation 
to the fact that they were supplied by an abundant water power and thus 
great centres of industry were established. 

About a score of years ago science came to the rescue and developed 
electricity energy, transmitting it to nearby towns and cities from the 
water powers, until to-day the use of hydro-electric power is transmitted 
as far as 100 miles at tremendous high voltage, and used in places where 20 
years ago people never dreamed of being able to use power from the water 
which they had seen tumbling over rocks many miles from their shops and 
factories. 

The result is that the Connecticut River Transmission Company and 
its subsidiary companies have performed great service and expended a 
fortune in securing for present and future generations in Central Massa- 
chusetts the use of the immense water powers concentrating in the beau- 
tiful Connecticut River and the turbulent streams of the Deerfield. Thus 
it is that to-day much of this harnessed power is being used by manufac- 
turers in Worcester County. 

In addition to this agency, Worcester County manufacturers, in 
former years as well as to-day, have relied on the Worcester Electric Light 
Company, the Worcester Gas Light Company, and to our own engine 
builders for the power to turn out their vast products. 



Concord Bridge 



By the rude bridge that arched the flood, 
N Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, 
Here once the embattled farmers stood 

And fired the shot heard round the World. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson. 



17 2 57 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The Bigelow Monument 

THE BIGELOW MONUMENT, standing on Worcester's Common, 
was erected at the expense and at the suggestion of Colonel T. Bige- 
low Lawrence, of Boston, a great-grandson of Col. Bigelow, and was 
dedicated on the 86th anniversary of the Battles of Concord and Lexing- 
ton, or the 19th of April, 1861. Later, special note was made of the fact 
that while the peaceful ceremonies were in progress on the beautiful centre- 
piece of the Heart of the Commonwealth, a later generation of Worcester 
patriots were encountering National foes in the streets of Baltimore. 

Perhaps no public occasion in the whole history of the town and city 
had drawn together so large a gathering as that which hailed the dedica- 
tion of this piece of white marble. Naturally the descendants of the 
Revolutionary Soldier were present in great numbers. A song, written for 
the occasion, by Clark Jillson, was sung by a glee club; the speaking was 
by the generous donor, Colonel Lawrence; the Mayor of the City. Hon. 
Isaac Davis, ex-Governor Levi Lincoln, several members of the Bigelow 
family and Judge Benj. F. Thomas, a grandson of Isaiah Thomas, the 
contemporary and political friend of him whom the monument commemo- 
rates. 

The remains of the Colonel, originally buried within what was used 
as the inclosure of the monument, were exhumed and inclosed in a metallic 
casket, and reburied beneath the monument itself. The monument was 
designed by George Snell, of Boston; the granite parts were executed by a 
Quincy company and the marble was imported from Tuscany. 

Shrewsbury Minute Men 

A BRONZE TABLET, placed by the Shrewsbury Historical Society, 
on a boulder in Park Square, Shrewsbury, which is situated a few 
miles from Worcester, records the valor of the men who fought during 
Revolutionary days, and who belonged to that town, the home of the great 
leader of the Revolutionary Army — Gen. Artemus Ward. 

The boulder weighs four tons, and the inscription states that 128 
Minutemen from Shrewsbury responded to the Lexington alarm, April 19, 
1 775. These 128 men came from a town with a population at that time of 
1 ,600, and from a district extending to 40 square miles, the people of which 
were busily engaged in the rush of spring work, plowing, harrowing, and 
sowing on their farms. 



258 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester in its Early Days 

Pen and Ink Sketches of Some Men and Women 
Who Made the City Famous 

John Adams 
Second President of the United States 



JOHN ADAMS, who followed George Washington in the presidency 
of the United States, taught school in Worcester, 160 years ago, in 
a little schoolhouse which stood on Courthouse Hill. The site of the 
school is now marked by a bronze tablet placed there by the Daughters 
of the American Revolution, Timothy Bigelow Chapter. 

John Adams, the second president of the United States, occupies an 
exceedingly interesting place in the history of the country He is the only 
president who has had the distinction and honor of living to see his son, 
John Quincy Adams, also elected to the chief magistracy of this great 
nation. 

The town of Braintree, in a portion of it now connected with Quincy, 
claims the honor of the birthplace of John Adams, October 30, 1735. At 
14 years of age, in response to his father, he said he wanted to be a farmer. 
He worked one very hot day at hoeing in the fields and at night he came 
home and said: "Father, I have been thinking to-day and have concluded 
that I should like to try my books." And so two years later, at 16, he 
entered Harvard and graduated in I 755. 

To help Adams go through Harvard his father worked also at shoe- 
making as well as farming, so that the young man might be equipped for 
the work he later had to perform as president of the United States. When 
he left Harvard, he looked round him for something to do, and was for- 
tunate in securing a position in Worcester as a teacher in one of the public 
schools. While teaching school, he also studied law. 

The North American continent was going through the struggle as to 
whether or not English or French influences were to be the dominating 
power. Adams wrote a letter at that time to a friend in which he spoke 
almost in prophetic words of the future greatness of this country, all of 
which has been fulfilled. 

He debated in his own mind while teaching whether he would give 
himself to law, to politics or to the army. For two years he remained in 
Worcester, then a town of only a few hundred people, finally giving up 
the school to return to Braintree where he took up the study of law. 

259 




Bunker Hill 
Watching the Battle 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



John Adams was one of five delegates sent from Massachusetts to the 
Continental Congress and played a prominent part in overthrowing the 
rule of King George. He seconded the motion of Richard Henry Lee, of 
Virginia, June 7, 1776, "that these United States are, and of right ought to 
be, free and independent." Jefferson and Adams were appointed by a 
committee of five to draw up the Declaration of Independence, and at 
Adams's request Jefferson drafted that immortal document. 

March 1 4, 1 797, at Philadelphia, John Adams was inaugurated Pres- 
ident of the United States, and though not regarded as a popular president 
in that sense of the term, he was a good president under exceedingly trying 
circumstances. 

John Quincy Adams, his son, was inaugurated president in 1825 
and honorably upheld the reputation of his father. 

Col. Timothy Bigelow — Worcester's Leader 
of the Minute Men 

TIMOTHY BIGELOW, the third in descent from John Bigelow, 
one of the early settlers of Watertown, was born in the town of 
Worcester, August 12, 1739, the old home being on what is known 
as Pakachoag Hill. Early apprenticed to the blacksmith's trade, he became 
one of the most energetic and prosperous of the citizens of his native town. 
Having scholarly tastes, he became well read in the best books to be had in 
Worcester and was early conspicuous for his devotion to the cause of the 
people in the gathering storm of the Revolution, while the wealthier portion 
of the populace were British or Tory in their leanings. In March, 1773, 
he was a member of the Committee of Correspondence, and later he organ- 
ized the "Political Society." Owing to his efforts in the great town meet- 
ing of I 774 the then treasonable resolutions were adopted, and thereafter 
the "Sons of Liberty" ruled triumphant where Toryism had prevailed 
before. 

He became an associate of Warren, Otis and other leaders of the 
patriot cause and during the first and second sessions of the Provincial 
Congress he was a delegate from Worcester, and to the command of the 
town's minute-men he was elected by a unanimous vote. His company 
was so well drilled that at a parade in Cambridge many months later, 
General Washington said, "This is discipline indeed." 

Having formed back of the Old South Church, on the Worcester 
Common, in the afternoon of the 19th of April, 1775, he led his company 
to Cambridge, arriving the next day, reporting immediately for service, 
and soon after receiving from Congress the rank of major. 

He was with Arnold in the exacting expedition against Quebec. On 
this trip, under orders, he ascended a high prominence for purposes of 
observation near the headwaters of the Kennebec, and, being claimed as 
the first man to make such a trip, the elevation has since been known as 
Mt. Bigelow. 

261 




George Bancroft 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



On the 31st of December, 1775, in the assault on the city he was 
captured and was held until the following August. As soon as an exchange 
could be effected he returned to the service as a lieutenant-colonel. 

At Saratoga, Valley Forge, West Point and other places, to the very 
end of the strife, Colonel Bigelow and his Fifteenth Regiment gave a good 
account of themselves. After eight years of service, with impaired health 
and an empty purse, he came back to his home to find his business ruined, 
and though he worked hard to repair his ruined fortunes his efforts were 
futile and, to the everlasting shame of his native town, he was thrown into 
a debtor's prison, where he died, March 31, 1790. Over six feet in height 
he was in every way a magnificent specimen of American manhood. 

The Colonel Timothy Bigelow mansion stood at the corner of Main 
Street and Lincoln Square opposite the Court House, from 1749 to 1830. 
Hon. Stephen Salisbury bought the estate in 1824. The old structure was 
removed to Prospect Street, facing the jail grounds, and the present brick 
block built on its site. A tablet marks the building as "The site of the 
mansion of Timothy Bigelow, Leader of the Minute Men from Worcester, 
April 19, 1775, Colonel of the Fifteenth Massachusetts Regiment." 

George Bancroft — Historian of America 

GEORGE BANCROFT, the historian of the United States, is a 
son of Worcester. A rough-hewn block of granite a short distance 
from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Salisbury Street 
marks the spot on which the house in which he was born stood, and Ban- 
croft Tower, erected in his memory, stands on one corner of the farm. 

Aaron Bancroft, the father, was a minister, and in Scotland George 
would be called "a son of the manse." 

George was the eighth of 13 children, born October 3, 1800, the son 
of Aaron and Lucretia (Chandler) Bancroft; Lucretia was one of 17 chil- 
dren of a distinguished Tory Royalist, John Chandler, whose goods and 
lands were confiscated. 

Aaron preached in the pulpit of the Old South Church, the first 
parish, where the majority of the people were conservative and held tena- 
ciously to the orthodox side of Calvinism. A score of old families of 
intellect and culture showed a tendency towards Arminianism. Aaron 
Bancroft preached his views without fear or favor, and the orthodox major- 
ity thought his views heretical. Then there was a split in the church and 
in 1785 the advanced thinkers asked him to become their minister in 
another place. 

For fifty-three and a half years Aaron Bancroft stood his ground, 
preaching the truth as he saw it in this new church, which grew to be a 
Unitarian communion, and the second edifice now stands on Court Hill. 

He shouldered a musket with other young compatriots and fought 
the British at Lexington and Bunker Hill. 

In the year 1813 George entered Harvard at the age of 13. He grad- 
uated at 1 7 with the second English oration Granted a scholarship of 

263 







CO 



c 

X 



CO 



o 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



$700 a year and, sent by the college he had been such an honor to, he 
departed for Germany, June 27, 1818. From Goething he went to Berlin 
and in the intervals of vacation he spent a few weeks in Heidelberg, in 
Paris and the Alps. For a time he intended to be a minister. 

Upon returning to the United States, Bancroft became a tutor at 
Harvard. He still tried to become a minister but no church opened to him. 
He tried to start a boys' school, but that also was a failure. He next pub- 
lished a volume of poems which fell flat. He wrote text-books for schools, 
translated "The Politics of Ancient Greece," followed this with a transla- 
tion of Heeren's history of "The Political System of Europe." He wrote 
17 articles for the North American Review, one on "The Bank of the 
United States." 

This blazed the way for his history writing, and young Bancroft at 
last found himself. 

He was defeated as Democratic candidate for governor of Massachu- 
setts in 1844, but still remained intensely interested in the presidential 
contest between Whig and Democrat. Polk being elected, George Ban- 
croft was appointed Secretary of the Navy. He was later appointed 
ambassador to England and while there he found his own books of history 
as popular in London as in Boston. A host of men of letters made the 
embassy a meeting place, among them Thomas Carlyle, Milman, Macaulay, 
Thackery, Dickens and Hallam. He increased England's estimate of 
America and secured great international improvements in postal laws. 

Bancroft chose Washington as a place of residence at the close of 
Grant's administration, where he spent the long afternoon of his life in a 
large double mansion. 

January 17, 1891, almost completing a century, this wonderful cycle 
of life ended. 

General Artemas Ward — of 
Revolutionary Fame 

GENERAL ARTEMAS WARD was the first commander-in-chief 
of the American Revolution, also the victor of the evacuation of 
Boston and the hero of Shay's Rebellion, and in the town of 
Shrewsbury, six miles from Worcester, stands the old home, one of the 
most revered landmarks of the county. 

General Ward was born in the old farm house which was then adja- 
cent to the present Colonial homestead, November 7, 1727. He graduated 
from Harvard University in 1 748. 

In an ancient trunk a favored few are shown letters which recount the 
earliest chapters of the American Revolution, while the tall clock which 
told off the hours to Artemas Ward as a boy still ticks the hours, the years 
and the generations away. 

In the old trunk are writings whose broken seals disclose the first 
secrets of the conflict in the handwriting of the fathers of the Revolution, 



26s 



^ 



!*<f"f!£v '' <5N, : : 




Artemus Ward 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



George Washington and his generals, in the handwriting of the creators of 
the Constitution, the story of the secret formation of the Minute-men, 
of the appropriation of powder stores by the patriots from the King s 
powder houses. 

New England was dear to him chiefly as the mother of the nation and 
the mother of the Revolution. He died, October 28, 1800. 

George Frisbie Hoar — Citizen of Worcester 
for Half a Century 

OPTIMISM was the watchword of George Frisbie Hoar's life, and 
during the many years that he served the people he tried to 
imbue them with that spirit. He had no patience with the 
grouchy ones who could only see that anarchism and socialism were send- 
ing the country to the eternal bow-wows. 

"The anarchist must slay 75,000,000 Americans before he can slay 
the Republic," he once said to one of these chronic pessimists. 

Senator Hoar held more offices and was offered others that he did 
not accept, than any other Worcester man. When he was 25 years old 
he was for one year in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 
another year when he was 30, he served in the Massachusetts Senate. 
The pay was two dollars a day at that time. He twice refused the nomina- 
tion for Mayor of Worcester and twice refused a seat on the Supreme 
Bench of Massachuetts. For years he refused a nomination to Congress. 

After a breakdown from overwork he went to Europe for his health, 
and during his absence arrangements were made for his nomination to 
Congress. These had gone so far that he could not escape "The result 
is," he said himelf, " I have been here 20 years as representative and sena- 
tor, the whole time getting poorer year by year. If you think I have not 
made a good one you have my full authority for saying anywhere that 
I entirely agree with you." 

The branches of the family tree from which George Frisbie Hoar 
sprang, in Concord, August 29, 1826, have sheltered many of the greatest 
movements in the history of the country. Its roots started with the 
country's history. 

He entered Harvard when 16 years old, in 1842, after preparation at 
Concord. He confessed that he looked back upon his graduation as the 
four wasted years with a good deal of chagrin. His time was largely wasted 
in novel reading, books which had not much to do with his college studies, 
and in lounging about his rooms and in those of his fellow students. He 
tells of a remark made by old Dr. Bartlett, of Concord, that Samuel Hoar's 
boys used to be the three biggest rascals in Concord. 

But the mischievous lad and student loafer came to himself, under- 
went a great reaction, as witness this counter confession, "When I gradu- 
ated I looked back on my four wasted years with chagrin and remorse. 
I think that I can fairly say that I have had few idle moments since. I 

267 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



have probably put as much hard work into life as most men on this con- 
tinent, certainly I have put into it all my work that my physical powers, 
especially my eyes, would permit. I studied law in Concord the first year 
after graduation. I used to get up at 6 o'clock every morning, go to the 
office, make a fire and read law until breakfast. Then I went home to 
breakfast and got back in about three-quarters of an hour and spent the 
forenoon until one reading law. After dinner, at two o'clock, I read his- 
tory until four. I spent two hours in walking alone in the woods and 
roads. At seven I read geometry and algebra, reviewing the slender 
mathematics I learned at college, and then spent two hours reading Greek. 
I have no remorse for wasted hours during those two years at Concord." 

Here is his declaration of statesmanship, " It is by your free choice that 
this nomination has been conferred. It has not been begged for or bar- 
gained for or intrigued for or crawled into. I never lifted my finger or 
spoke a word to any man to secure or to promote my own election to any 
office. " 

Judge Emory Washburn received young Hoar into partnership for 
practice in Worcester County and he succeeded him, owing to the election 
of Judge Washburn as Governor. From 1849 to 1869, so great grew the 
professional service that at one time or other Hoar became counsel for 
every one of the 52 towns in Worcester County. 

Hoar opposed the A. P. A. movement and supported the abolition 
of slavery, and he fought fiercely against the refusal of the Southern people 
to secure the negro the ballot. His most outstanding contest was against 
the corruption of the Republican party itself. "When I entered Congress 
in 1869," he confessed, "the corridors of the capitol and the committee 
rooms were crowded with lobbyists. My own public life has been a brief 
and insignificant one, extending little beyond the duration of a single 
senatorial term, but in that brief period I have seen five judges of a high 
court of the United States driven from office by threats of impreachment 
for corruption or mal-administration. " 

These were sources of shame to patriotic congressmen until the issue 
was met and punishment meted out, a rectification in which Hoar was a 
leader. 

Such was the state of affairs even during Grant's administration, but 
his good-natured trust blinded him to the crimes of the corruptionists. 
The Tweed ring and the New York gang of grafters were bad enough, 
but Hoar's hands were full with the Massachusetts evil He saw that 
Massachusetts indeed furnished the leaders in a school of national corrup- 
tion within the Republican party which with dismay he hastened to 
expose. That led to the installation of the civil service law to take 100,000 
offices out of the system of public patronage and senatorial dictation, and 
in this Hoar was also one of the leaders. 

Senator Hoar was a lover of his home, and of nature. As a champion 
of the feathered race he carried an enactment through Congress for their 
preservation. His former home, on Oak Avenue, is a museum of many 
rare pieces of furniture picked up at home and abroad. 



269 




Main Entrance and Kitchen of 
General Artemus Ward House in Shrewsbury 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Senator Hoar died in Worcester, September 30, 1904. The funeral 
services, attended by a distinguished congregation of mourners of national 
fame, took place in the Church of the Unity, October 3, 1904. 

An admiring populace in Worcester, the city he loved, honored itself 
and the memory of one of its most notable citizens, by erecting a statue of 
Senator Hoar on the northerly side of the City Hall, and it was dedicated 
with appropriate exercises June 26, 1908. A committee was appointed to 
have charge of the work, of which the then Mayor, Walter H. Blodget, 
was chairman, ex-mayor Philip J. O'Connell secretary; Charles M. Thayer 
treasurer and John B. Bowker, auditor. 

The monument was erected by public subscription, there being more 
than 30,000 subscribers, and in a few weeks' time over $21 ,000 was received 
by Treasurer Thayer. Daniel C. French was chosen as sculptor of the 
statue and Peabody & Stearns were selected to design the pedestal, which 
was furnished by Norcross Brothers. 

June 26, 1908, the statue was dedicated in presence of a large con- 
course of people, the oration being delivered by Hon. William H. Moody, 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Addresses were also 
given by Gen. Curtis Guild, Jr., then Governor of Massachusetts, Hon. 
James Logan, while Dr. Edward Everett Hale offered the prayer. 



These Inscriptions are on the Pedestal 
of the Statue 

West Side 

GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR 
BORN IN CONCORD AUGUST 29 1 826 
DIED IN WORCESTER SEPTEMBER 30 I904 
LAWYER SCHOLAR ORATOR STATESMAN- 
CITIZEN OF WORCESTER 
FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY 
MEMBER OF MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE OF 
REPRESENTATIVES I 85 2 
MEMBER OF MASSACHUSETTS SENATE 1 85 7 
CITY SOLICITOR OF WORCESTER i860 
MEMBER OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF 

REPRESENTATIVES 1 869- 1 877 
SENATOR OF THE UNITED STATES 1877-1904 



271 




George Frisbie Hoar 
At 70 Years and Early Manhood 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



North Side 



PURITAN AND PATRIOT BY INHERITANCE 

UNSULLIED IN CHARACTER 

LOVER OF LIBERTY 

CHAMPION OF THE OPPRESSED 

HIS LIFE EMBODIED THE TRADITIONS OF 

MASSACHUSETTS 

AND OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE REPUBLIC 

HIS HIGH IDEALS ZEAL FOR LEARNING AND 

CONSTRUCTIVE STATESMANSHIP 

MADE IMPERISHABLE CONTRIBUTIONS 

TO A GREAT PERIOD OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

THIS STATUE IS RAISED 
BY GIFTS FROM THIRTY THOUSAND OF HIS 

TOWNSFOLK 

THAT THE PEOPLE FOR ALL TIME MAY BE 

INSPIRED BY THE MEMORY 

OF HIS PERSONAL VIRTUE AND PUBLIC SERVICE 

South Side 

"i BELIEVE IN GOD, THE LIVING GOD, IN THE AMERICAN 
PEOPLE, A FREE AND BRAVE PEOPLE, WHO DO NOT BOW THE 
NECK OR BEND THE KNEE TO ANY OTHER, AND WHO DESIRE 
NO OTHER TO BOW THE NECK OR BEND THE KNEE TO THEM. 

"i BELIEVE THAT LIBERTY, GOOD GOVERNMENT, FREE 
INSTITUTIONS, CANNOT BE GIVEN BY ANY ONE PEOPLE TO 
ANY OTHER, BUT MUST BE WROUGHT OUT FOR EACH BY 
ITSELF, SLOWLY, PAINFULLY, IN THE PROCESS OF YEARS OR 
CENTURIES, AS THE OAK ADDS RING TO RING, I BELIEVE 
THAT, WHATEVER CLOUDS MAY DARKEN THE HORIZON, THE 
WORLD IS GROWING BETTER, THAT TO-DAY IS BETTER THAN 
YESTERDAY, AND TO-MORROW WILL BE BETTER THAN TO-DAY. ' ' 



iS 273 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Eli Whitney — Mechanic and 
Cotton Gin Inventor 

ALTHOUGH the name of Eli Whitney is chiefly associated with 
/ \ the invention of the cotton gin he invented many other things. 
Between the ages of I 3 and 1 6 he had first made the machinery for 
making nails and then the nails themselves. 

He had refused his father's offer to send him to a preparatory school 
and later to college, but the manufacture of nails opened a way for him to 
go to Yale. 

He was 18, and his hard life had shown him the desirability of a col- 
lege education. His father objected, declaring he was too old; his step- 
mother objecting because of the expense. Unlettered mechanics declared 
that one good mechanic was spoiled when he went to college. 

Eli Whitney was born in Westboro, December 8, 1765. His mother 
died soon after his birth. He began to develop his inventive genius by work- 
ing in his father's little lean-to workshop. 

An invitation to Mulberry Grove, by the widow of Gen. Nathaniel 
Greene, brought about the invention of the cotton gin. At that time it 
took a negro a day to clean a single pound of raw cotton and separate it 
from the seed. At that time Eli had never seen raw cotton or cotton seed. 
Within ten days after his first conception of his plan he made a small 
though imperfect model. Observing old negro mammies clawing off the 
seed with their finger nails gave the youthful genius his ideas for a machine. 

Eli Whitney will always be associated with the invention of the cotton 
gin. 

Elihu Burritt — The Learned Blacksmith 

WELL KNOWN in the latter years of his life as the "Learned 
Blacksmith," Elihu Burritt made his home in Worcester, back 
in the forties, and published two periodicals there, one a monthly, 
"The Literary Geminae," in 1841, and a weekly, "The Christian Citizen," 
1844-1851. He was born in New Britain, Conn., December 8, 1810. 

At the death of his father, in 1828, he apprenticed himself to a black- 
smith in that town and followed that occupation for several years. 

While learning this trade he decided to be a surveyor, and took up 
the study of mathematics, for which he had a natural taste. It is said that 
he was in the habit of practicing on problems of mental arithmetic, which 
he extemporized and solved while blowing the bellows. They were rather 
quaint in their terms but quite effective as an exercise. One was: "How 
many yards of cloth three feet in width, cut into strips an inch wide, and 
allowing half an inch at each end for the lap, would it require to reach from 
the centre of the earth, and how much would it all cost at a shilling a 
yard?" This was a mental example. He would not allow himself to make 
a single figure with chalk or charcoal in working out this problem. At the 
end of his day's work he would carry home in his head the whole example 

275 




Elias Howe 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



to his brother, who was a school teacher, and he and his assistant, with their 
slates, would prove each calculation and find the result to be correct. 

When he decided to take up to a greater extent the study of the lan- 
guages and looking about for the location giving him the opportunities in 
this line, he decided to locate in Boston, and walked from New Britain to 
Boston. Not finding what he sought in Boston he turned his steps to 
Worcester, where he not only obtained ready employment at the anvil 
but also access to the large and rare library of the Antiquarian Society, 
containing a great variety of books in different languages. When the 
work at the anvil became slack, or by working overtime at night, he was 
able to give more time at the library in the study of the languages. 

In a letter to Wm. Lincoln, he said: "I carried my Greek Grammar 
in my hat and often found a moment when I was heating some large iron 
when I could place my book open before me against the chimney of my 
forge and go through my study unperceived by my fellow workman, but 
sometimes with a detrimental effect to the charge in the fire." 

After leaving Worcester he traveled extensively in this country and 
Europe, and in his later years was one of the best known, most respected 
and loved men of his time He finally returned to his native town of New- 
Britain and died there March 6, 1879, the most wonderful man in many 
respects this country has ever produced. 

Elias Howe — Spencer's Most Famous Son 

ELIAS HOWE may be called one of the emancipators of woman- 
kind, for long before votes for women were heard of, this Spencer 
boy invented the sewing machine. He was considered a happy-go- 
lucky fellow up to the time he was 20 years old. 

At that time, while he lounged in a Boston store, a chance remark 
dropped by Ari Davis, the owner of the store, to an itinerary tinker who 
had in view the inventing of a knitting machine, took his hands from his 
pockets and set them at work. 

Inventive genius was a family trait, however, for an uncle, William 
Howe, was the designer of the first truss bridge erected in America, that 
over the Connecticut River at Springfield. Tyler Howe, another uncle, 
was the inventor of the spring bed. 

Elias Howe was born July 9, 1819, in Spencer, into the family of a 
farmer and miller. He was one of eight children and at first was partially 
crippled. 

Observation of his father's mill wheels as a boy, of machinery in the 
Lowell shops at 16, later in a Cambridge machine shop gave impetus to his 
inventive genius. It was in the shop of Ari Davis, a maker of mathe- 
matical instruments, that Elias heard the remark that stirred his genius. 

At 21 he was married, with his family increasing while he began to 
decline into semi-invalidism with long days of work. His wife took in 
sewing and he watched her get thinner daily with incessant toil. 

*77 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Gradually the ideas evolved until a crude model of a machine of wood 
and wire made a finished stitch — 300 stitches a minute. 

The usual accompaniment of genius — poverty — hampered him. 

George Fisher, a schoolmate, aided him financially, but the machine 
could not be launched in America. He sent his brother to England with 
it to a man named Thomas, a maker of corsets and carpet bags. 

The machine was patented in England and Thomas agreed verbally 
to pay three pounds on every machine sold. Thomas broke his side of 
the bargain, notwithstanding that he got ten pounds himself and made 
over $1 ,000,000. He sent for Elias Howe to adapt his machines to corsets 
and after that he was discharged. 

Imitations were appearing and a patent suit against S. M. Singer 
was decided in his favor, all contests were settled and all royalties were 
his. Complete victory came all at once. 

Not only did Elias Howe bring fame to his native town and was hailed 
as the liberator of womankind by eliminating the drudgery of sewing, but 
his two uncles, born in the same house, were inventors of no small genius. 
The people of Spencer felt that such a trio belonging to one family, bring- 
ing lasting fame to their town, should not go unrecognized and on Janu- 
ary 16, 1907, the Howe Memorial Association was incorporated. On the 
19th of May, 1910, a splendid statue of granite and bronze, in memory 
of the three inventors, was unveiled with elaborate services 

Hon. Alfred S. Roe, of Worcester, delivered the dedicatory address 
which was a valuable contribution to the historic data of Worcester County. 
Hon. Charles N. Prouty was then and still is the president of the Howe 
Memorial Association. 

Besides the monument of granite and bronze to be seen in the town 
of Spencer, the traveller on the Boston & Albany Railroad may see on a 
high promontory near the North Spencer station, a wooden tablet on a 
pole with the information that the house in which Elias Howe was born 
was located in the town of Spencer. 

Dr. William Morton — Charlton's 
Distinguished Son 

<*^XT 7E HAVE conquered pain," read the headlines in the news- 
\A/ papers all over America on the 16th day of October, 1846, 
and the significant words were echoed all over the world. The 
day previous, the surgical amphitheatre of the Massachusetts General 
Hospital witnessed the first surgical operation rendered painless by the use 
of ether. 

Dr. William Thomas G. Morton, the discoverer of the first successful 
anaesthetic was born in the hill town of Charlton, a dozen miles from Wor- 
cester. It was a strange coincidence that William Morton's grandfather 
served during the American Revolution, under the martyr of Bunker 
Hill (President Joseph Warren), whose nephew, Dr. John C. Warren, a 

279 




Dr. William Morton, Conqueror of Pain 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



distinguished Boston surgeon, was the man to perform the first operation 
with the aid of ether. 

Up to 10.15 o'clock October 16. 1846, the conquest of pain remained 
an unsolved mystery. The hour set for the young dentist to make good 
his claim of the discovery was 10 o'clock, and as doctors and students 
waited for his arrival, Dr. Warren, "presumed he was otherwise engaged" 
and took up the scalpel to begin. A laugh with a touch of sarcasm in it 
broke over the room and just then a side door opened and a young man of 
27 entered, no older than many of the scoffing students. 

Dr. Warren, a little distantly said, "Well, sir, your patient is ready." 

The patient was to have a tumor removed from his neck. He showed 
not the slightest fear as the tube connected with a glass globe containing 
the ether was applied. In four and a half minutes the patient slept like a 
child. 

Turning to Dr. Warren, Dr. Morton repeated the challenge to him of 
five minutes before, "Dr. Warren, YOUR patient is ready, sir." 

"Gentlemen, this is no humbug," was Dr. Warren's verdict at the 
close of the operation; and the patient, when he awoke declared: "I have 
experienced no pain only a scratching like the scraping of the part with a 
blunt instrument." 

Dr. Warren later enunciated his verdict, thus: "A new era has opened 
for the operating surgeon. His visitations on the most delicate parts are 
performed not only without the agonizing screams he has been accus- 
tomed to hearing, but sometimes in a state of perfect insensibility and 
occasionally even with an expression of pleasure on the part of the patient. 
Who would have imagined that drawing a knife over the delicate skin of 
the face might produce a sensation of unmixed delight? That the turning 
and twisting of instruments in the most sensitive bladder might be accom- 
panied by a delightful dream? That the contorting of anchylosed joints 
should co-exist with a celestial vision? And with what fresh vigor does the 
living surgeon who is ready to resign the scalpel, grasp it and wish again 
to go through his career under new auspices?" 

The inevitable horde of claimants of the discovery arose and made 
of Dr. Morton's life a tragedy. From an income of $20,000, a year he was 
reduced to poverty, until, in 1857, Boston friends issued an appeal to the 
patrons of science and the friends of humanity. The staffs of the great 
hospitals of Boston, New York, Brooklyn and other cities gave their sig- 
natures. 

On July 15, 1868, Dr. Morton was stricken with an apoplectic shock 
while driving with his wife in New York. At St. Luke's Hospital, where he 
was carried, the surgeon gave one look and turning to the students said, 
"Young gentlemen, you see lying before you one who has done more for 
humanity than any other man who ever lived." 

A monument in the Boston Public Gardens erected in memory of 
the discovery and also one in Mount Auburn Cemetery over his grave, 
erected by the people of Boston, is thus inscribed. 

281 




UJ 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



WILLIAM T. G. MORTON 

INVENTOR AND REVEALER OF ANAESTHETIC INHALATION. 

BEFORE WHOM, IN ALL TIME, SURGERY WAS AGONY 

BY WHOM, PAIN IN SURGERY WAS AVERTED AND ANNULLED 

SINCE WHOM, SCIENCE HAS CONTROL OF PAIN. 

Ethan Allen — Machinist and Gun 
Manufacturer 

ETHAN ALLEN, of no immediate connection with the Vermont 
patriot of the same name, was born in the town of Bellingham, 
Sept. 2, 1806. At an early age he worked in a machine shop in the 
adjoining town of Franklin, and when of age, began business for himself, 
so said, "in a small way." In 1831, he was making cutlery in the town of 
Milford; soon after, removing to New England Village, now North Graf- 
ton, he made shoemaker's knives and other tools. 

In 1833 he began the manufacture of guns and pistols, continuing 
thus for several years, being a pioneer in such work, turning out revolving 
pistols and a breech-loading rifle, similar to Sharp's, but claimed to be 
better. He also made machines for the manufacture of firearms and very 
ingenious ones for making metallic cartridges. The exhibit of the firm at 
the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, 1876, was one of the most 
notable there. 

In the later '40's, he came to Worcester and, at first, was a tenant in 
the old Merrifield Building and with his fellow-tenants was burned out 
in 1854. The large stone factory, now a part of the Crompton & Knowles 
loomworks, near the railroad junction, followed and there he continued 
until his death, Jan. 7, 1871. After his death, his son-in-law, the late 
Sullivan Forehand, who had been taken into the business in 1863, carried 
it on until his own death, many years later. 

Many stories are told of Mr. Allen's absolute fearlessness, even cap- 
turing in his own house a burglar who did his best to fire one of Allen's 
own pistols at him. Overcoming the fellow, he turned him over to the 
police; the famous so called "pepper-box" revolver was of his make. 

The Ethan Allen house, now 1 6 Murray Avenue, was for many years 
numbered as 320 Main Street, and was, next to the Oread, the distin- 
guishing feature of the southern portion of Worcester's principal thorough- 
fare. Mr. Allen had purchased the estate in 1847 and he erected the 
capacious and stately mansion in 1853; sitting a long distance back from 
the street, in the midst of extensive grounds, the place came near satisfying 
one's ideas of what an English baronial estate might be. A large fish pond, 
now back of the residence of the late Thomas H. Dodge, was a conspicuous 
feature of the estate, as people entered the Main Street driveway. In the 
march of improvement and development Murray Avenue was run through 
the very midst of the property and thus relegated the great mansion to 
a location on a side, though parallel street. For many years it has been 
the home of Dr. J. O. Marble, another son-in-law of the skillful inventor. 

283 





Dorothea Lynde Dix 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Dorothea Lynde Dix — One of the World's 
Noble Women 

"AN UNVEILED Sister of Mercy," is the title applied to Dorothea 
/ \ Lynde Dix, redemptress of the world's insane. 

She was not born in Worcester but in Hampden, Maine, April 
4, 1802, but soon after the household moved to Worcester and made 
their home on Court Hill on what is now known as the Bliss property. 
The house now stands at I Fountain Street. 

Her father, Joseph Dix, was in a continuous state of debt; her mother 
was a hopeless invalid and they seemed tending toward the poorhouse. 
Dorothy, however, inherited the spirit of her grandfather, Dr. Elijah Dix, 
of Boston, with whom she lived for a time. She was endowed with a con- 
stitution that could endure 70 years of high-keyed labor 18 hours each day. 

She differed from the old Puritanism and advanced to a quality that 
Puritanic Elijah Dix and Dame Dix never knew. 

No good-night kisses, no stories to warm the imagination, no affec- 
tion to melt the heart or warm the nature in the stately Dix mansion. A 
special indulgence, granted as a prize, was the making, under the eye of 
Dame Dix, of an entire shirt, not one stitch of which could vary from the 
other by the width of a micrometer. Under this and the pressing intel- 
lectualism of Boston school life, Dorothy's heart was starved to feed the 
mind and will. 

When her grandmother would have her at the head of a fashionable 
boarding and day school in Cambridge, Dorothy fitted up the old Dix 
barn, gathered and educated free the children of the poor. At 24 it was 
thought that she would die of consumption. The pains in her chest be- 
gan when she was 14, while teaching school in Worcester, and that condi- 
tion continued for years. 

In 1827 she began a series of journeyings as governess with the family 
of Dr. William Ellery Channing, also traveling for health. After returning, 
a Cambridge divinity student, who failed to reach the women of the Cam- 
bridge jail, enlisted her help. The condition of these women in winter, 
only served as a local point to show her like conditions among insane people 
the world over. From observation she kept a notebook of facts gathered 
in her travels and armed with these facts she disarmed opposition and 
at the Legislature of Massachusetts she secured the passage of bills secur- 
ing better conditions. 

In cages, cellars, stalls, pens, chained, naked, beaten with rods and 
lashed, were confined the "Beasts without souls," "Disenspirited bodies," 
as the insane were regarded in America. 

The passage of the bill for the establishment of the New Jersey In- 
sane Hospital occurred March 25, 1845. That was the first full-fledged 
triumph. That law was reproduced in over 20 other American common- 

285 




John B. Gough 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



wealths before it leaped the border into Canada and crossed the seas into the 
Old World. The humane treatment of the insane all over the world is 
the result of this cultured, sensitive gentlewoman's untiring and self-for- 
getting labors. 

John B. Gough 
"Young Man, Keep Your Record Clean" 

ALTHOUGH John B. Gough was born in Sandgate, England, 
August 22, 1817, Worcester claims him as one of her sons, for he 
was discovered in this town when 25 years of age, at which time, 
he declared came his second birth. 

He looked back upon the years preceding that to "Seven damning 
years of degradation, from eighteen to twenty-five." Thousands lived 
to bless the name of Joel Stratton who laid his hand on Gough's shoulder 
when he was on the point of ending it all; for these thousands were turned 
from drunkenness to become useful and respected citizens. 

When John B. Gough, the great apostle of temperance, first made his 
appearance in Worcester his wife and child had already died and he himself 
was ready to go. He planned to go to a railroad track where he would 
drain a vial of laudanum, stretch what was left of his rum-soaked frame 
across the rail and end it all. To the track he did go, but the thought of the 
Beyond held him back. Perhaps it would not end all, and this drove him 
back to his garret room. 

He arrived in Worcester as a strolling comic singer and stage super. 
He had written to his wife at Newburyport to come to a home he had 
prepared near where he had procured employment as a skilled mechanic. 
It was then that his wife and new-born child died, while he lay for ten 
days in delirium tremens. 

One Sunday he was returning from a day of debauch in the meadows 
of the country side. He thought again of the railroad track and laudanum, 
when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned, expecting a policeman, but 
found instead Joel Stratton, a waiter in a temperance hotel. Warmed to 
life by the touch of a friendly hand and the encouragement of having a 
fellowman have confidence in him, he promised to sign the pledge the next 
day He was then half drunk and on his way to his cups at a Lincoln 
Square bar, to go reeling later to his garret, yet this kind word penetrated. 

In the morning he steadied his nerves with "a whiskey sling" and 
another at noon as a "Farewell health to the devil." Then began the 
battle. He forced his steps to the town hall where the momentous pledge 
was taken. 

In the years that followed, Gough told in his lectures of the fight that 
followed, of six days and nights in his garret chamber, wrestling there in 
torture without food or drink, a soul fighting against a hell on earth. The 
wall featured gorgon faces writhing into life, the room squirmed with 
bloated insects whose tendrils gradually wriggled up against his face like 

287 




Clara Barton 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



ten thousand spiders, while knife blades contorted themselves in his hands 
till the flesh seemed in shreds. Yet he kept himself from drink and — 
conquered. 

Gough was asked by the Temperance Circle to narrate his experiences, 
and again on Burncoat plain in his rags he vividly visualized the demons he 
encountered. Martin Luther dramatized his experiences as did Gough. 

With a grace of expression inherited from an intellectually gifted 
mother, he cast a spell over hundreds of thousands in both hemispheres. 
In the first year of 365 days he gave 365 addresses for which he received 
but $105.90, but in this time he obtained 15,218 names of those who swore 
to stop drinking. 

November 23, 1843, he married Mary Whitcomb, whom he took 
from the homestead of Captain Stephen Flagg, of Boylston, a homestead a 
portion of which in later years he reclaimed as his estate and made his wife 
the head of it. The homestead later became the country home of the late 
Charles H. Morgan. 

February 15, 1886, at Frankford, near Philadelphia, he had spoken 
20 minutes to a packed audience. He had just uttered the words — "Young 
man, keep your record clean," when he fell back stricken with apoplexy. 
Three days later he died, aged 69. He was buried in Hope Cemetery. 
Worcester. 

Clara Barton — Mother of the Red Cross 

CLARA BARTON was born in Oxford, I I miles from Worcester, on 
Christmas Day, 1 82 1 , and she lived to be over 90 years of age. 
"The angel of the battlefield," as thousands of Union soldiers 
called her, made hard and unremitting work her watchword. "You have 
never known me without work," she once wrote to friends, "while able you 
never will. It has always been a part of the best religion I had. I never 
had a mission, but always had more work than I could do lying before me 
waiting to be done." 

Clara Barton came by this keeping to the path of duty naturally. It 
was so with her father. In the engagements with the British and the 
Indians he left his fireside in 1793 for the side of "Mad" Anthony Wayne 
in the wilds of the Northwestern Territory in Indiana and Detroit. The 
tales of this hero father made a great impression on her mind and instinct- 
ively she, even in her childhood, became a little sister to the soldier. 

She believed in courage being truest through overcoming fear and she 
gained physical courage when in the pastures of her father's 300-acre farm 
at Oxford, her brother David used to throw her on a half broken colt which 
he had bridled, jump on another, and holding fast by the mane, speed off 
on a wild gallop. That experience stood her in good stead when she had 
on various occasions to mount a strange horse in a trooper's saddle and fly 
for life and liberty. 

The International Red Cross will keep the memory of Clara Barton 
forever green. 

19 289 




Luther Burbank 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Luther Burbank 
Machinist — Inventor — Creator 

LUTHER BURBANK was a forty-niner, but not one of the gold- 
seeking kind. The only connection he had with that class of en- 
thusiasts was that he left his Worcester County home for California, 
whose climate has aided and abetted him in outdoing nature and that he 
was born on the 7th of March, 1849, in the town of Lancaster. 

That genius, wherever found, cannot be hid under a bushel, was as 
evident in the case of the young horticulturist as in that of many other 
inventors whose genius was in danger of being frustrated or diverted 
through circumstances. 

Between school terms, at the age of 16, Luther was sent for summer 
work to the noise and dirt of a machine shop, the Ames Plow Co., of which 
his uncle, Luther Ross, was superintendent, when his heart was among the 
plants of Lancaster and Lunenburg. His inventive brain, however, found 
expression in the factory, and to keep that brain in the factory his pay 
was multiplied by twenty-five. He constructed a labor-saving machine 
that would save the work of half a dozen men, and that earned for him by 
its rapid turning out of pieces $10 to $16 a day. But in the face of this 
increase, which was enough to carry any boy off his feet, he refused to 
remain and clung to his one ruling passion, to be true to the plant world's 
call. 

The distinguished scientist was tendered a banquet by the Chamber 
of Commerce of Santa Rosa, California, recently, and at it he was hailed 
not only as a man of that city and the United States, but as a man of the 
world, assistant of God in intensifying nature's gifts to mankind. Many 
speakers in flowery language paid tribute to the genius of this renowned 
son of Worcester County. 

Burbank was the 1 3th child of his parents and in his veins ran the 
blood of his Scotch mother, a race of born horticulturists, and of his English 
father. The scene of his first great success as a plant-creator was in the 
market garden in Lunenburg, out in the farm lands some miles from his 
birthplace. To Luther it was a spot to be approached not with scorn as a 
place to pull weeds, but as a shrine in which to discern mysteries. 

There happened to be in that garden on a single plant of the rose 
potato plant, an unheard-of thing for that variety, a seed ball. 

Luther Burbank discerned it and discerned, too, that it was an unusual 
growth. The New England potatoes then were very poor. Could not this 
offer a departure to change their degeneracy and by planting this seed 
could he not improve the stock? Young Burbank seized upon it without 
delay; it was the psychological moment of his life. 

A stray dog, or other animal knocked the seed ball off the branch, but 
young Burbank discovered it and treasured it until the following spring. 
The result of the planting of these 23 tiny seeds was the new splendid 
product, the Burbank potato. 

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Luther Burbank's Birthplace, and Cottage at Santa Rosa, Cal. 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



In 1875, Burbank fulfilled his resolution and started for California. 
He suffered hunger, loneliness and a deadly fever followed by privations, 
the lot of many of the early settlers. The fever was brought about by 
having to sleep in a damp room over a steaming hothouse. 

In 1876, the result of his struggles in California left him enough to 
start a small nursery in Santa Rosa and that same year he was joined by his 
mother and sister from New England. He found himself, as he said, in a 
paradise of plants, the chosen spot of all the world for his purpose. 

Burbank has been denounced for his meddling with nature and once 
a callow clergyman invited him to church to hear, unsuspectingly, his own 
denunciation. 

Soon after his launching into the work on his own account an adver- 
tisement appeared in a California paper to fill an order for 20,000 prune 
trees in nine months. Burbank at once decided to fill the order, and he 
searched the country side for helpers. With their aid he planted all he 
could obtain of the seeds of the almond, the most rapid-growing of all trees. 
On the sprouts he budded 20,000 prune buds. In nine months they were 
ready according to stipulation. Soon he had built up his business that 
would have meant to him an income of $10,000 a year, but this would 
leave him no time for experimenting, and that is what he lived for and not 
for making money 

Those passing by his testing gardens at Santa Rosa may see him in 
the early morning pollinating his flowers or grafting his fruit trees. He 
watches the bees and other insects and gets from that observation the 
exact time for the carrying of pollen from one flower to another. 

He gathers the pollen from the stamen of one plant on to a watch 
glass and carefully places it upon the stigma of another. That wind or 
insect may not refertilize the receiving plant, he cuts and removes the 
stamen, removing and cutting away the petals, anthers and sepal cup, 
the pistils alone being left. The Shasta daisy, a very queen of the garden, 
he developed from the wayside daisy of his native Worcester County, and 
in this way he has changed the color or the perfume of hundreds of thou- 
sands of flowers. And not that alone, but he changes the flavors of fruits. 
Once he found a plum with the faint taste of a Bartlett pear, and by selec- 
tion he evolved a plum with more of the taste of the Bartlett pear than the 
pear itself. 

Where success does come, nowhere does it come without cost. A 
white blackberry, the iceberg, required in the evolution the destruction of 
65,000 bushes. 

But the greatest achievement of this wonder worker is the dethorning 
and rendering edible the cactus of the desert. An area of over a thousand 
million acres, larger in area by far than the United States, is rendered use- 
less on this globe, the arid, parched deserts unpopulated save by the bones 
of men and beasts and by barbed and deadly cactus. This always flour- 
ishes. For I 5 years the plant prophet silently worked, experimenting with 
nearly 1 ,000 species from all the world's deserts. From the seeds planted, 
tens of thousands showed no improvement, but the latest results show 



J93 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



giant cacti practically thornless, 8 to 20 feet high, and weigh at the maxi- 
mum a ton or more each. They will furnish good fodder for cattle and 
sheep, about one-half as nutritious as pasture grass. For human consump- 
tion they produce great quantities of yellow, white and orange-colored 
fruit, usually three and a half inches in length and two inches in diameter 
and in shape like a banana or a cucumber, its meat flavoring of the peach, 
the melon, the pineapple or the blackberry. 

Of forage they produce 200 tons to an acre. In comparison to the 20 
tons produced of coarse vegetables like beets, turnips, carrots or cabbage, 
they thus offer the proportionate increase of 200 to 20 based on fact. 
Therefore is Burbank's prophecy that were the population increased one- 
third, there could, together with what is already produced, be grown from 
this desert plant food enough for all. 

It is not a mirage of the desert, for the cactus is already extensively 
used in many quarters of the globe. From the sale of the first five leaves 
to an Australian firm was built the beautiful new home which Mr. Burbank 
now occupies. So great does the United States appreciate the work of this 
plant wizard that he is granted $10,000 annually for ten years from the 
Carnegie Institute at Washington. 

Mary Had a Little Lamb 

IT IS SAFE to say that every school child in America, in the last two 
generations at least, has repeated the lines which made Mary Sawyer 
the heroine of not only her birthplace, Sterling, but throughout the 
English speaking world. 

There are several small communities which have from time to time 
claimed Mary Sawyer as their own, but as Mary's relatives still live in the 
old homestead and these same relatives have given sworn statements to 
that effect, the honor undoubtedly belongs to Worcester County. 

This is the story of Mary and her little lamb. It sounds like a fairy 
tale but it is not and the incidents may be duplicated many hundreds of 
times, although there are no poets about to chronicle the story. 

Mary Sawyer was born in Sterling, March 22, 1806. Sterling is 12 
miles from Worcester, and the little house which still stands is about a 
mile from the centre of the town and many visit it in the summer months. 
A honeysuckle gnarled with age, grows over the house and the oldest pic- 
tures of it show this same trumpet variety as it appears to-day. 

It was through the town of Sterling that the great Indian warrior, 
King Philip, marched, with his 1 ,500 savage soldiers, burning all the 
white men's houses and killing or taking captive the people. 

But to return to Mary. The lamb was born — one of twins — one cold 
bleak March night, and the following morning when Mary went out to the 
barn with her father they found this particular lamb cold and hungry, 
deserted by its mother. Mary adopted the lamb, nursing it back to 
health, sitting up with it one whole night by the fire. Naturally it became 

294 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



her devoted playmate and following her to school was one of the happen- 
ings to be expected. The lamb was aided and abetted, however, by Mary's 
mischievous little brother, Nate, and they reached school before the 
teacher, Miss Polly Kimball. Mary settled the Iamb at her feet and there 
it lay quietly until Mary was called to the teacher's desk to recite. Pres- 
ently the clatter, clatter, clatter of little trotters was heard as the lamb, 
as usual, followed Mary, to the great amusement of the children. "And 
so the teacher turned it out." Mary herself said that she shut it into a 
shed until recess and she then took it home. 

That this funny little incident in a child's school life became famous, 
is hinged on the fact, that there happened to be a visitor in the school 
that day. A young man named John Roulstone, Jr., a freshman at Har- 
vard University, who was tutoring with his uncle, Rev. Lemuel Capen, in the 
town of Sterling. He was so highly amused that he wrote the verses and 
visited the school the following day and presented the verses to Mary. 

Mary married Columbus Tyler in 1835. He was superintendent of 
the McLean Hospital for the insane in Somerville. She afterwards became 
matron for the same institution which position she held for 35 years. She 
outlived her husband many years and died at the age of 83. December 1 1, 
1889, and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge. 

When the loyal women of Boston wished to preserve the historic 
Old South Church which played such an important part during the Ameri- 
can Revolution, Mary was asked for a contribution. For many years she 
had kept two pairs of stockings made by her mother from the wool of her 
lamb. It was the last material remembrance she had, but she sent them 
to the fair. They were unravelled, and pieces of the yarn tied to cards 
which bore her autograph. 

It was from the tower of Old North Church that Paul Revere gave the 
signal that "the Redcoats had arrived." "Two if by land and one by 
sea" was to be the lantern signal code. The British showed little senti- 
ment for the old South building, and tearing out the pews turned it 
into a riding school. It was the first church in Boston in which religious 
services were held commemorating the Declaration of Independence and the 
British soldiers marched to service there. 

The lamb was gored to death by a cow one Thanksgiving morning 

Andrew H. Green — Father of Greater 
New York 

ANDREW HASWELL GREEN. Born October 6, 1820, in the old 
house, afterwards incorporated in the large mansion now standing 
in Green Hill Park. He was a cousin of Dr. John Green, the princi- 
pal founder of the Free Public Library, Worcester. He went to New York 
City to live in 1835 and soon studied law there; latterly, under Samuel J. 
Tilden, whose confidential friend he became and who made him an execu- 
tor and trustee under his will. He was president of the Board of Educa- 

295 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



tion in New York, president and executive officer of the Commissioners 
for establishing Central Park, president of the Board of Commissioners on 
the Niagara Reservation. 

Mr. Green was especially known as a vigorous and effective agent in 
overthrowing the Tweed ring, and, because of his conspicuous and telling 
work in bringing about the union of old New York, Brooklyn and other 
places, as the Father of Greater New York. He was killed Nov. 13, 1903, 
being mistaken for another man. 

Lucy Stone — Woman's Rights Advocate 

IN WORCESTER COUNTY, at West Brookfield, August 13, 1818, was 
born Lucy Stone, one of the early Massachusetts coterie of women 
who clamored, spoke, worked and wrote for women's rights, but in a 
somewhat different manner from their English cousins. 

Lucy Stone died at Boston, Oct. 18, 1893, aged 75 years, and though a 
score of years has passed since her death, she is well remembered for pioneer 
work in a field of endeavor which is now much more popular for both men 
and women to favor than it was in her day. 

Hon. Stephen Salisbury — Worcester's 
Wealthiest Citizen 

STEPHEN SALISBURY was born in Worcester, March 31, 1835. 
He died November 16, 1905, a multimillionaire, Worcester's wealthi- 
est citizen. He was the third in the family of that name. Educated 
in the public schools, he graduated from the Worcester High School and 
Harvard Law School. He was a member of the Worcester Bar, was in 
the City Council, the Massachusetts Legislature, traveled extensively 
and was at the time of his death connected with many institutions. His 
public bequests were many, chief of which was that to the Worcester 
Museum, to which he bequeathed $3,000,000. 

Edward Augustus Goodnow 

EDWARD A. GOODNOW, financier, merchant, philanthropist was 
born in Princeton, 12 miles from Worcester, July 16, 1810. He 
was president of the First National Bank of Worcester, one of the 
most foremost banks of the Commonwealth and was instrumental in the 
erection of the First National Bank Block, a five story marble structure. 

He regarded slavery as a curse and was one of the first eight men in 
his town to adopt the propaganda of the Free Soil Party, which has as its 
principles, "A common resolve to maintain the rights of free labor against 
the aggressions of the slave powers, and to secure free soil to a free people. " 
It also declared that "Congress has no more power to make a slave than to 
make a king. " 

296 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



When the civil war broke out he was too old himself to shoulder a 
musket but 13 of his clerks marched one after another to the battlefield, 
aided by him in every tangible way to fight for the Union. 

He gave liberally in assisting to equip Massachusetts troops. He 
headed a Worcester subscription with $500 to assist Gov. Andrew enlist 
and equip the first regiment of colored troops ever formed for service. 

One of his evidences of regard for "The Nation's Honored Dead" is 
found in 1 5 marble tablets in the Classical High School erected by him in 
memory of 1 5 students of that institution who gave their lives for their 
country. He gave a life-size portrait in oil of President Garfield, and 
another oil portrait of Vice-President Henry Wilson to the Mechanics 
Association. He gave a bust of Gen. Grant to the school, the sum of $40,000 
was contributed by him in establishing a library building in Princeton, 
and many were his benefactions to American colleges and deserving insti- 
tutions. 

He gave a chime of ten bells to Plymouth Church and also its organ. 
The Young Women's Christian Association received a generous contribu- 
tion of $30,000 at various times. 

His gifts for patriotic, educational, charity and church purposes prob- 
ably amounted to a quarter million dollars. 

He died in Worcester Feb. 1 , 1905, aged 94. 

Col. Calvin Foster 

THE FIRST iron-front building erected in the Eastern States was 
built by Col. Calvin Foster at the corner of Main and Pearl streets. 
It was designed by Col. Foster, who was one of Worcester's mer- 
chants and financiers, and president of the City National Bank. 

The building was erected in 1854, and is now occupied by the Duncan- 
Goodell Co. It is in the Corinthian style of architecture and looks to-day, 
after 60 years of service, almost as good as new. 

Col. Foster rendered splendid service by his practical financial advice 
and assistance in the early beginnings of the various railroads which desired 
to make Worcester a central point. 

"No Greater Hero than Eli Thayer" 

ELI THAYER was born in Mendon, July II, 1819. He was seventh 
in direct line from John Alden and Priscilla through Ruth, daughter 
of Rev. Noah Alden, of Bellingham, who married his grandfather, 
Benjamin Thayer. 

He received his education after district schools, in Bellingham High 
School, Academy at Amherst and prepared for Brown at the Worcester 
Manual Labor School, now known as the Worcester Academy. 

He taught in the Worcester Academy and became its principal but 
gave up the position in order to assume the management of his own new 

297 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



school, the Oread, situated on the opposite hill. He was a member of the 
School Board and gave much attention to public affairs. He served as 
Representative in the State Legislature and distinguished himself by pre- 
senting a bill to incorporate the bill of mutual redemption. 

In 1845 he proposed, and in the next five years successfully carried out 
the remarkable scheme which made his name one of the important ones in 
the history of the country. His plan was to settle Kansas which was 
organized and opened for settlement as a territory, 1854, with enough anti- 
slavery supporters to make it a free state. He organized the Immigrant 
Aid Company and had it incorporated, and so convincing was his eloquence, 
so great the interest and enthusiasm of the times and so businesslike and 
practical his plan, that a large number of immigrants were found to help 
him carry it out. The towns of Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan and Os- 
sawatomie were settled and Kansas was added to the free states. 

Charles Sumner said he would rather have the credit that is due to 
Eli Thayer for his work on behalf of Kansas than be the hero of the 
battle of New Orleans. 

In an address delivered by Hon. William H. Taft, then Secretary of 
War, May 30, 1904, at the 50th anniversary of the Kansas-Nebraska Act 
by Congress which opened these territories for settlement and provided 
for territorial government, he said, "There are no greater heroes than Eli 
Thayer, of Massachusetts, and Charles Robinson, of Kansas, who almost 
alone and single-handed entered upon the work of peopling a vast terri- 
tory with free and brave men so as to forever exclude human slavery from 
its limits." So it was that on the 29th of January, 1861, almost within 
hearing of the guns that boomed out the beginning of the Civil War at 
Fort Sumter, Kansas was christened and accepted as a state of the Union 
from which slavery should ever be excluded. 

Industrial Welfare Work 

MANY WORCESTER MEMBERS of the National Metal Trades 
Association are to be found in the vanguard of those endeavoring 
to lighten the burden of daily toil among their employees. 
Several firms have provided recreation and dining rooms; others, 
libraries; others, again, have furnished a home for the benefit of their 
women employees, where the latter may enjoy good, substantial food 
at cost. 

Still others give the wherewithal to furnish an enjoyable day's outing 
in summer, paying all the expenses, and some invite their employees to a 
sleighride and supper in the winter. All the members supply the very best 
sanitary buildings and the equipment wherewith to work that is possible. 
But it makes no difference through what medium the employers make 
work people happy and contented — whether with fair compensation, 
reasonable hours of labor, good sanitary conditions and other attractions, 
or all of these combined, it should not be forgotten that personal friendli- 
ness and appreciative words also go a long way towards making loyal 
employees. 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Ex-President Taft — Aunt Delia and Millbury 

EX-PRESIDENT William Howard Taft first came to Millbury to 
see his Aunt, Delia, when a very small baby. The people of the town 
did not see much of him, however, until about 1870, when he was 
12 or 13 years old. He then attended school in the Union Building and 
played in the village with boys of his own age. One day, about this time, 
his father took him down to the "swimming pool" where a crowd of other 
small boys were gathered and told him that he too might learn to swim. 
It was not a great while before William was able to enjoy the sport with the 
rest. 

From this time until his entrance to college, he spent the winter at 
his home in Cincinnati, and during summers he and his brother Horace, 
and a sister, came to the home of his Aunt Delia. One summer he received 
private tutoring from E. S. Hume, then principal of the High School at 
Millbury. Mr. Hume states that they studied Virgil most of the summer 
and that his pupil showed unusual knowledge of the subject. 

He entered into the life of the village, fishing, swimming, and driving 
over the surrounding country with the other boys with his grandfather's 
horse and carriage. With his jolly manner and merry smile he became 
very popular with every one and was always surrounded with people of his 
own age. He was far from aggressive, but believed in standing up for his 
rights at all times, to which a portion of his popularity was due. 

After entering college, his vacations in Millbury became shorter and 
less frequent. 

Although in after life he met dignitaries and people of note, he never 
forgets the pleasant summers at Millbury and the acquaintances of his 
boyhood days. They have a very warm place in his heart. 

A Patriotic Creed 

WE believe in our country — the United States of America. We 
believe in her Constitution, her Laws, her Institutions and the 
principles for which she stands. We believe in her future — the 
past is secure. We believe in her vast resources, her great possibilities — 
yea, more, her wonderful certainties. 

We believe in the American people, their genius, their brain and 
their brawn. We believe in their honesty, their integrity and their depend- 
ability. We believe that nothing can stand in the way of their commercial 
advancement and prosperity. 

We believe that what are termed "Times of business depression" 
are but periods of preparation for greater and for pronounced commercial 
successes. 

And we believe that in our country are being worked out great prob- 
lems, the solution of which will be for the benefit of all mankind. 

299 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The State Armory 



THE FIRST ARMORY was built on Waldo Street, which has since 
been transformed into the Police and a Fire Station, as it was 
unsuitable for Armory purposes. 
The present Armory at Armory Square was erected by the city in 1888, 
Cutting & Bishop being the contractors, Fuller & Delano the architects. 

The following statement of costs is interesting: 27,000 feet of land, 
$23,000.00; building, $86,270.00; heating, $3,850.00; total cost with 
furnishings, $131,991.39. 




About two years ago the Armory passed into the hands of the State 
and was remodeled at an expense of between $35,000 and $50,000. Up to 
a few years ago the Armory belonged to the city, but at that time the State 
took over the Armories and reimbursed the cities for their outlay. 

About five years ago the city put an addition to the Armory on Grove 
Street for the accommodation of the artillery. 

The following military organizations occupy the building: A Co., 
Second Infantry; H Co., Second Infantry; C Co., Second Infantry; 
G Co., Ninth Infantry; B Battery, First Field Artillery, all connected 
with the Massachusetts militia. 
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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



The Centennial of the American Flag 

Thou hast not always been, as here to-day, so comfortably ensovereigned. 
In other scenes than these have I observed thee. Flag, 
Not so trim and whole, in folds of stainless silk; 
But I have seen thee to tatters torn, upon thy splintered staff, 
Or clutched to some young color-bearer's breast, with desperate hands, 
Savagely struggled for, for life and death fought over long, 
Mid cannon's thunder crash and many a curse, and groan, and yell, and 

rifle volleys cracking sharp, 
And moving masses as wild demons surging — and lives as nothing risked, 
For the mere remnant, grimed with dirt and smoke, and sopped in blood, 
For sake of that, my Beauty, and that thou might dally as now, secure up 

there, 
Many a good man have I seen go under. 

— Wall Whitman. 



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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester in the Civil and Spanish Wars 

WORCESTER sent to the Civil war during the four years 3,927 men 
at a total direct money cost of $586,054. This was a great 
record, when it is remembered that the population of Worcester 
in 1860 was 24,960. 

Worcester regiments raised in response to the call for troops in '61 
were the 15th, 21st, 25th, 36th and 51st with a good representation in the 
34th, 42nd and 57th. On its roll of honor were Generals Devens, Ward, 
Pickett, Sprague, Goodell, and Lincoln. 

The Highland Military Academy, after half a century's splendid ser- 
vice in Worcester recently closed, furnished several young officers, among 
them Lieut. Willie Grout, the youth for whom the poem "The Vacant 
Chair" was written by Henry S. Washburn. 

George H. Ward — Machinist, Soldier 

BREVET Brigadier-General George H. Ward was born in Worcester, 
April 26, 1826. He was the son of Col. Artemus Ward, enrolled in 
the State Militia of Massachusetts in 1821 and made Captain of the 
Worcester Light Infantry in 1826. 

George Hall Ward was named after one of the early pastors of the Old 
South Church of which his parents were members. It was their intention to 
educate him for the ministry, but after passing through the common and 
high schools at the age of 2 1 , he became a skilled machinist. His mother 
and a sister dying when he was 16, brought a burden of sorrow which made 
him thoughtful and self reliant beyond his years. At 21 he enlisted in the 
Worcester City Guards and through the various grades rose to the command 
in 1852. He became thoroughly conversant with military duty and main- 
tained the company in a high state of discipline. 

He rose to the rank of Brigadier-General of the Fifth-Brigade of 
Massachusetts Volunteer Militia just before the war began. It was said of 
him by his old friend, Gen. Augustus B. R. Sprague "with personal knowl- 
edge and without fear of contradiction, I affirm that in the school of the 
soldier, the company, the battalion and the evolutions of the line, as an 
organizer and disciplinarian, he had no superior in the volunteer militia. 

At the battle of Ball's Bluff, Va., October 21, 1861, then Lieut.-Col. 
Ward of the Fifteenth Massachusetts Volunteers, was severely wounded 
by a musket ball in the left leg. Subsequently the limb was amputated, 
but not successfully and the wound was a running sore. 

He came back to his home in Worcester and recruited and drilled many 
Massachusetts regiments at Camps Lincoln and Scott. In February, 1863, 
he joined his regiment at Falmouth, Va., as colonel, though incapacitated 
by loss of his leg and weakness and the severe pain which he was obliged 

302 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



to endure. He was in the Chancellorsville campaign, and on June 14, 1863, 
commenced that fatiguing Gettysburg campaign. 

His limb pained him severely and he was obliged to unstrap his artifi- 
cial leg and rest the wounded member over the pommel of his saddle on the 
line of march. His corps, the Second, under Major-General Winfield S. 
Hancock, arrived on the field of Gettysburg on the evening of July 1 , 1863, 
after the first day's battle. The regiment was brought into line at 4 a. m. 
July 2, and occupied a position at the very centre of the Federal forces 
at the so-called "High water mark of the rebellion." After being engaged 
during the day, Col. Ward was ordered in command of his own regiment and 
the 82nd New York regiment to a position in advance of the Union line 
about three-quarters of a mile at a point called the Codori Buildings. 

Here they were under fire from the enemy in front and their own forces 
in the rear. The regiments became disorganized under the onslaught and 
as Ward was endeavoring to rally and steady his troop he was wounded in 
the right leg. He was removed at once to the 2nd Corps field hospital 
when he died about midnight. 

He was buried at Worcester, July 8, with the honors befitting his 
mark. He was breveted Brigadier-General dating from July 2, 1863. His 
portrait hangs upon the walls of Mechanics Hall. His surviving comrades 
of the Civil War look upon him as their representative of all who gave 
their lives and have given his name to Post 10, Grand Army of the Re- 
public of Worcester. 

A beautiful monument bearing his bust has been erected over his 
grave at Rural Cemetery. The members of the 15th regiment, comrades of 
the City Guards and citizens erected a fitting monument to his memory on 
the spot where he fell. It was dedicated June, 1 886. General Chas. Devens, 
General A. B. R. Sprague, Congressman W. W. Rice, Major Church Howe 
paid him a feeling and eloquent tribute. General Devens's words at the 
dedication of the monument ended as follows: — "May it stand through 
winter's cold and summer's heat, through sunshine and storm, to attest 
the patriotic self devotion of a true soldier who died for his country." 



Nelson Appleton Miles — A Born Soldier 

NELSON APPLETON MILES was born at Westminster, Aug. 8, 
1839. He entered the army as a volunteer in 1861, having been a 
clerk previously in a Boston business house. Upon the outbreak of 
hostilities he was appointed a captain in the 22nd Massachusetts Volun- 
teers. In time he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the 
61st New York. He participated in every battle of the Army of the Poto- 
mac, and was always in the front during action. He was thrice severely 
wounded. His record during these years of warfare easily won him a 
place among the foremost generals of West Point training. 

At the close of the war, having risen to the rank of major-general in the 
volunteer service, he became colonel of the 40th Regiment in the regular 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



army. For several years he distinguished himself in the West as an active 
Indian fighter. He conducted several campaigns against the Indians, 
notably against the Apaches under Geronimo and Natchez. In 1880 he 
was promoted to be brigadier-general, and in 1890 to be major-general. 
During the railroad strike troubles at Chicago in 1884, he was in command 
of the regular troops sent there to enforce order He represented this country 
during the Turkish-Grecian War, and later at Queen Victoria's Diamond 
Jubilee in 1897 During the war with Spain he commanded the American 
forces. In 1900 he was raised to the rank of lieutenant-general in the army. 
Last fall General Miles made a trip to the Philippines and upon his return 
issued a report that called forth general controversy. It is also interesting 
to note that he opposed the general staff bill to increase the efficiency of the 
army 

General Miles' service to his country has been great. The best years 
of his life were devoted to the army, and under him it became an effective 
force. The debt which the country owes to him is great. What his rank as 
a soldier and general is may be gleaned from an editorial in the New York 
Sun, wherein the writer compares him to General Roberts, himself a dis- 
tinguished general 

"Lord Roberts, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, is seven 
years older than General Miles, the one having been born in 1832 and the 
other in 1 839, and he has passed through a longer period of military service, 
but relatively to that of the American general it has been in a theatre of war 
far less majestic. 

"Lord Roberts had received the Victoria Cross for personal bravery 
in the Indian Mutiny campaign three years before General Miles left a 
business clerkship at Boston to take his lieutenant's commission in the 
22nd Massachusetts Infantry; but six years before the English soldier had 
begun to demonstrate his administrative ability as a quartermaster- 
general in the Abyssinian campaign, General Miles had passed through the 
terrible battles of the Army of the Potomac's Peninsular campaign and 
had won his spurs as colonel of the 61st New York, and during the three 
subsequent years he was in a hundred engagements, great and small, 
before he was selected from among the volunteer officers for the rank of 
colonel in the regular army 

"Relatively to the American general's experience of war, that of the 
British field marshal had been insignificant up to this time, so far as 
concerns grand operations of war; it had been with comparatively small 
armies and with detachments of troops. Thereafter, up to 1880, Lord 
Roberts continued in the Indian service. At the time of the conspicuous 
achievement by which he won a baronetcy, the defeat of Ayoob Khan at 
Candahar; he was in command of only 9,000 troops. In South Africa, also, 
the warfare presided over by Lord Roberts was on a small scale beside that 
through which General Miles passed from 1861 to 1865. The 
service of General Miles on the plains after the Civil War would alone 
entitle him to high soldierly distinction. He practically ended the Indian 
wars and uprisings that had terrified and devastated vast regions beyond 



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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



the Mississippi which since have become seats of populous communities." 
After filling the responsible post of lieutenant-general for three years, 
General Miles has left the army, which he has ever served so well, and 
where he was ever held in such esteem and confidence. (August, 1903.) 
In his retirement to private life, General Miles carried with him the memory 
of a record that time cannot tarnish. History will fully recognize the place 
he has held with such distinction, both in the army and as a citizen of the 
republic. 

Augustus Sprague — Soldier, Citizen 

AUGUSTUS B. R. SPRAGUE was born in Ware, March 7, 1827. 
His ancestors on both sides were of Puritan stock, his maternal 
grandmother, Alice Alden, being in the sixth generation in direct 
line from John Alden who came over in the Mayflower. The subject of 
this sketch received his education in public and private schools. In 1842 
he came to Worcester and entered the employ of H. B. Claflin, afterward 
the famous New York merchant. Later he was for a time with H. H. Cham- 
berlain, who founded the present establishment of Barnard, Sumner & Put- 
nam Company. He afterward engaged in mercantile business for himself, 
and as a partner with his father in the firm of Lee Sprague & Company. 

He reached his majority and cast his first vote in 1848. He joined 
the Worcester Guards at the age of 1 7, and served as private, non-com- 
missioned and commissioned officer, beginning a military career that made 
him of service to his country in her greatest need. 

He was adjutant of the 8th Regiment, and brigade-major and inspec- 
tor of the 5th Brigade M. V. M., holding the latter office at the outbreak 
of the war. At the first call for troops, he was unanimously elected cap- 
tain of the Worcester City Guards, Company A, Third Battalion of Rifles 
M. V. M., under Major Charles Devens, and served from April 19 to August 
3, 1861 , during the last month as commander of the battalion, Major Devens 
having resigned to become Colonel of the 15th Massachusetts Volunteers. 

In September, 1861, Captain Sprague was active in the organization 
of the 25th Massachusetts Volunteers and was commissioned lieutenant- 
colonel, and participated with his command in the famous Burnside Ex- 
pedition, and served until November 11, 1862, in its battles and skir- 
mishes, and was officially reported for "bravery and efficiency" in the 
engagements at Roanoke Island and New Berne. 

In November, 1862, he was promoted to be colonel of the 5 1st Mas- 
sachusetts Regiment, and was assigned to the 18th Army Corps, serving 
in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. 

At the expiration of its term of service, in consideration of the great 
public peril attending the invasion of Pennsylvania by the army of northern 
Virginia, Colonel Sprague offered his regiment for further service which 
was accepted and ordered to Baltimore, thence to Maryland Heights, 
joining the Army of the Potomac, and only returned to Massachusetts 
when Lee was rapidly retreating in Virginia. 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



February I, 1864, he re-entered the service as lieutenant-colonel of 
the 2d Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, and later became its colonel. He 
served with it in North Carolina and southern Virginia, commanding the 
regiment in its field service, moving with General Schofield to open com- 
munication with General Sherman at Goldsboro, North Carolina. 

Colonel Sprague was finally mustered out September 20, 1865, after 
nearly four years of service, and was breveted brigadier-general of volun- 
teers, to date from March 13, 1865, "for gallant and meritorious services 
during the war." 

Gen. Charles Devens — Soldier and Jurist 

GENERAL CHARLES DEVENS was a Worcester man although 
born in Charlestown. He came to Worcester soon after beginning 
practice of law and had been identified with Worcester throughout 
a long and honorable career. He always retained a legal residence in Wor- 
cester wherever his bodily presence might be and when official duties called 
him elsewhere he kept his library in the Lincoln house block. 

Charles Devens was born in Charlestown, April 4, 1820. He at- 
tended the Boston Latin School and graduated from Harvard in 1838. 
He was admitted to the bar in 1 840 and practised in Northfield and Green- 
field. In December, 1856, he became the law partner of Hon. George F. 
Hoar and J. Henry Hill. He was City Solicitor from 1 856 to 1 858. 

Monday, April 15, 1861, when Lincoln's first call for 75,000 volunteers 
reached Worcester, he left an unfinished trial and hurried to offer his ser- 
vices to the government. He was made major of the Third Battalion Rifles 
of Massachusetts Volunteers, a three months organization. April 20, he 
went South and was stationed at Annapolis and Fort McHenry. He was 
appointed colonel of the 15th Regiment, July 15, 1861. 

Devens was at that time in the prime of life and was descended from 
ancestors who had fought in the Revolution and the War of 1812. He 
was warm-hearted, powerful in intellect and stature, developed by broad 
culture and a good range of practical experience. He represented what 
was best in the traditional character of New England. 

He served with the 15th Regiment until the spring of 1862 through 
the battle of Ball's Bluff where he bore a conspicuous part. In that en- 
gagement he was saved from a wound by a button which intercepted a 
bullet and escaped capture by swimming the Potomac River. At the 
battle of Antietam, his horse was shot under him. At Chancellorsville he 
was wounded. At Ball 's Bluff he was made Brigadier-General and at the 
request of General Grant he was commissioned Major-General by brevet 
in 1865. After the fall of Richmond he was put in command of that city 
and subsequently he became military governor of Charleston, S. C. In 
both of these offices his courtly bearing won him a high reputation with 
the people he ruled and the government he served. 

Judge Devens had also a distinguished career as a jurist. He was 
appointed to the Bench of the Superior Court by Gov. Bullock in 1867 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



where he remained until 1873, when he was appointed an Associate Justice 
of the Supreme Court by Gov. Washburn. 

In 1877 he resigned his judgeship to accept the position of Attorney- 
General of the United States under President Hayes, and at the close of 
the latter's term of office was reappointed in 1881 to the Massachusetts 
Supreme Bench by Governor Long in place of Judge Soule who had suc- 
ceeded him four years before. 

Judge Devens succeeded General Burnside as national commander of 
the Grand Army of the Republic, and was for many years president of the 
Loyal Legion. He was also commander of the Military Society of the 
Army of the Potomac and the James and the Sixth Army Corps. He was 
president of the Fifteenth Regiment Association since its organization. 

His grandfather having been a Revolutionary officer, of prominence, 
Gen. Devens was by heredity a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. 



The Vacant Chair 



ONE OF THE songs of the Civil War, which then, as well as now, 
touched a responsive chord in every heart was "The Vacant Chair." 
It was written by Henry S. Washburn, then in Worcester, to the 
memory of Willie Grout, of Worcester, who was shot at Ball's Bluff. 

We shall meet, but we shall miss him, 

There will be one vacant chair; 
We shall linger to caress him, 

While we breathe our evening pray'r. 
When a year ago we gathered, 

Joy was in his mild blue eye, 
But a golden cord is severed 

And our hopes in ruin lie. 

At our fireside, sad and lonely, 

Often will the bosom swell 
At remembrance of the story, 

How our noble Willie fell. 
How he strove to bear the banner 

Thro' the thickest of the fight 
And uphold our country's honor 

In the strength of manhood's might. 

True, they tell us wreaths of glory 

Evermore shall deck his brow, 
But this soothes the anguish only 

Sweeping o'er our hearstrings now. 
Sleep to-day, O early fallen, 

In thy green and narrow bed; 
Dirges from the pine and cypress 

Mingle with the tears we shed. 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Work 

By Francis B. Dalrymple 

Leave tears to babes, rouse power and mind, 
Grasp time, and sow in hope to find, 

A harvest quick with measure; 
Wealth follows him who toils the most, 
Health, too, doth follow without cost, 
And when joy comes no king can boast 

In it a greater pleasure. 

Like bat-balls, catch the coin and send 
It hot with haste to nearest friend, 

That dull trade times come never; 
Make profit magnify on loss, 
And mirth the same, to scare each "cross," 
The workman is the public boss, 

Remember, and law giver. 

Life's everywhere in earth and act — 
Shine up your talent then and tact 

And love the joy of toiling; 
The ploughshare's brightened by the ground, 
A thinker's test has thought profound — 
'Tis rust that wears the axle round, 

More so than work or oiling. 

Close not a book till something's learned, 
Stop not the toil till something's earned, 

Though slow or long at either; 
Work must be done before earth yields 
The produce of the harvest fields — 
Write "work" your motto on your shields; 

And be the sluggard neither! 

Lift up the will then, and command. 
The iron arm, the willing hand. 

While steam's within the body — 
Keep up the fire of ne'er despair. 
Deep bury life's corroding care; 
To friend or foe alike be fair, 

And keep the road to God, aye. 



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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



General Josiah Pickett 

THERE ARE few names among those of the citizen soldiery of 
Massachusetts entitled to more prominent mention than that of 
Brevet Brigadier-General Josiah Pickett, of Worcester. This 
honor and distinction are the result of his native force of character, per- 
sonal bravery, and actual service in the War of the Rebellion. 

General Pickett was born at Beverly, November 21, 1822, and after 
attending the common schools in his native town, successfully followed a 
mechanical occupation until called into the service of his country. Early 
in life he became earnestly interested in military affairs, which led to his 
enlistment as a member of Company F, 6th Infantry, Massachusetts 
Volunteer Militia, in July 1840, being elected a lieutenant three years later. 
The gold excitement in 1849 carried him to California, and upon his return 
he came to Worcester in 1855, identifying himself soon after with the 
Worcester City Guards, and at the call for troops in April, 1861 , responded 
as first lieutenant of this company, in which he served with Major Devens's 
Rifle Battalion at Fort McHenry, Maryland, for a term of three months. 

Returning from this service he organized and was commissioned 
captain of Company A in the 25th Massachusetts Infantry. This regiment 
formed a part of the famous Burnside expedition that encountered serious 
peril by sea, the objective being Roanoke Island, where Captain Pickett 
was officially complimented for gallantry in the engagement of February 
8, 1862. He participated in the capture of New Berne, March 14, and 
was promoted to the rank of major March 20, 1 862. 

Major Pickett served as such until October 29. 1862, when he was 
made colonel to succeed Colonel Upton, who had resigned. This splendid 
regiment, one of the best and bravest, saw most of its distinguished service 
under the direction of Colonel Pickett, and much of the unrivaled dis- 
cipline and gallant conduct of the 25th so brilliantly displayed in the War 
for the Union can be attributed to the ability of its commander. 

During the Goldsborough campaign and the subsequent active mili- 
tary operations in North Carolina, Colonel Pickett won further distinction 
for efficient service. In the spring of 1863 he was in command of the 
garrison at Plymouth on the Roanoke when seriously threatened by the 
Confederates and the following autumn successfully commanded the sub- 
district of the Pamlico, for which he received honorable mention when 
ordered to Virginia in December, 1863. 

Rejoining his regiment, then assigned to the Army of the James, 
Colonel Pickett won special praise for courage and military capacity in the 
operations south of Richmond during the spring of 1864. At Arrowfield 
Church his bravery and coolness were particularly conspicuous. In the 
severe fog-fight at Drury's Bluff, after the capture of General Heckman, 
Colonel Pickett quickly rallied the shattered regiments of the brigade and 
saved the Union right from serious disaster. 

Later, while serving with the army of the Potomac, Col. Pickett 
achieved his highest reputation as a soldier as he gallantly led his heroic 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



regiment through that terrible fire at the Battle of Cold Harbor, in which 
he was severely wounded, and the 25th nearly annihilated, sustaining loss 
of 73 per cent, in killed, wounded and missing. This gallant charge of the 
regiment is described by the Confederate General Bowles, who witnessed 
it from the Rebel entrenchments in these words: 

"On looking over the works I discovered what I supposed one regiment, 
with an officer in front, with sword raised high in air, calling on his men 
to charge. The heroic regiment that made this gallant charge was the 
25th Massachusetts, which was the only regiment that obeyed orders to 
advance. The balance of the brigade had refused to go forward, and not 
since the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava has a more heroic act 
been performed. " 

For distinguished bravery on this occasion and meritorious conduct 
during the war, Colonel Pickett was commissioned, Brevet-Brigadier- 
General, to date from June 3, 1864. It was not until the following Novem- 
ber that General Pickett returned to his regiment. He was still suffering 
severely from his wound and being disabled from further active military 
duty completed his regimental reports, took leave of his old comrades, and 
retired from the service in January, 1865, carrying with him the respect and 
good wishes of the officers and men who, under his command, had performed 
their duties so faithfully and fought so gallantly to sustain the honor of the 
flag and the supremacy of the government. It was said of him that he 
was "a hero commander of a heroic regiment." 

General Pickett, in September, 1866, was appointed postmaster of 
Worcester, discharging the duties of this office for more than 20 years. 

General Pickett was a charter member of the Massachusetts Com- 
mandery of the Loyal Legion, President of the 25th Veteran Regiment 
Association, member of the Grand Army of the Republic. 

General Pickett died January 14, 1908. 

The Soldiers Monument on the Common 

THE GREAT MONUMENT on the northeast corner of the Worces- 
ter Common, erected to the memory of the soldiers of Worcester 
in the War of the Rebellion, was dedicated July 15, 1874. It was 
designed by Randolph Rogers and cost $50,000, being one of the largest 
and most imposing of its kind in the country. 

Among those present at the unveiling were Vice-President Henry 
Wilson, General A. E. Burnside, of Rhode Island and later United States 
Senator, ex-Governors Bullock and Boutwell, Gen. Charles Devens, Gen. 
Josiah Pickett, Gen. Robert H. Chamberlain, Gen. William S. Lincoln. 
Among leaders of divisions who participated in the parade were Lieut.- 
Colonel Joseph A. Titus, Captain David M. Earle, Lieut. John J. O'Gorman 
and Alzirus Brown. 

The monument bears the names of those from Worcester who died in 
the service. 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Three Young Worcester Martyrs 

THE CIRCUMSTANCES attending the death of Lieutenant Ed- 
mund N. Benchley, who was killed at San Juan, in the Spanish 
War, son of Charles H. Benchley, of Worcester, are similar in a 
certain degree to those connected with the fall in battle of two others, — 
Lincoln and Grout, martyrs of different wars. All three were Worcester- 
born. Each was in the thick of the fight when the fatal bullet struck, and 
the untimely fate which overtook them has called forth the most sincere 
expression of private regret and public eulogy. 

Captain George Lincoln, killed in the battle of Buena Vista, was a 
son of ex-Governor Levi Lincoln, and was 31 years old at the time of his 
death. He was struck by a shot in the back of the head "when facing a 
regiment, riding in front, and encouraging them on at a critical moment 
when they were faltering under a severe fire. His situation was a most ex- 
posed one, a situation which would have been mere foolhardiness to take 
except under the circumstances of this battle, where the troops were chiefly 
volunteers, and all depended on the officers. Lincoln was acting as adju- 
tant-general, and had no command of the regiment, but seeing them 
falter, he rode in front and cheered them on by example as well as byword." 

Lieut. John William Grout, who fell at Ball's Bluff, October 21, 1861, 
was born in Worcester in 1843, and had barely attained the age at which a 
legal claim could be made upon his services when he fell a voluntary sacri- 
fice on the altar of his country. He was the only son of Jonathan Grout, 
and early manifested signs of a military spirit by which he was animated. 
He was educated at the Highland Military School, in Worcester, and 
after enlistment his services were in demand in drilling volunteers. He 
received a commission as second lieutenant in Company D of the famous 
15th Massachusetts Regiment, and gained the confidence and friendship 
of his company and the whole regiment. In the battle in which he fell, 
his valor was conspicuous, and in the last hour his coolness, discretion and 
generosity did not forsake him. He crossed the stream in a boat with the 
wounded, and returned for more, and dispatching the second boatful, re- 
mained upon the shore until hope of further successful resistance van- 
ished. He then plunged into the stream, but before he could reach the 
opposite shore the fatal ball of the barbarous assassin left him only time 
and strength to exclaim, "Tell Company D that I should have escaped, 
but I am shot " 

Lieut. Edmund Nathanial Benchley was born in Worcester, March 3, 
1876. He was educated in the public schools, and appointed a cadet at 
West Point by the late Congressman Joseph H. Walker, graduating with 
the class of 1 898. He was at once commissioned a second lieutenant, Sixth 
Infantry, United States Army, preferring the infantry to the artillery or 
cavalry service, as it promised better opportunities in the Cuban War 
for active duty. He proceeded to Florida in May, and with the regulars 
landed in Cuba the latter part of June, where the active engagement of 
that short campaign soon followed. 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



On the first day of July the battle of San Juan took place. In crossing 
the San Juan River, under a severe artillery fire, several companies were 
separated from the advance portion of the troops, and the colonel desired 
them to be brought up at once. "He called Lieut Benchley, and directed 
him to recross the river and carry orders to the battalion and company 
commanders to bring their commands forward at once. He started at 
once on this important and dangerous duty, and gave the orders to some 
of the officers indicated. He had just given it to one commander when he 
received a bullet through the heart, killing him instantly. His military 
career was brief, brave and glorious. He was cool and brave under one 
of the severest fires ever known, and he performed his duty nobly and 
gallantly. Had he lived he would have been brevetted for gallantry in 
action." 

Worcester County had thousands of just such men as Lincoln and 
Grout and Benchley in the ranks in America's last two wars. 

Sergeant Plunkett — Who Lost Two Arms 
In The Civil War 

SERGEANT THOMAS PLUNKETT, E Company, 21st Regiment, 
who enlisted from West Boylston, was a notable figure while he 

was a doorkeeper at the State House at Boston for a number of 
years, because of the fact that both sleeves were empty. One of Wor- 
cester County's bravest sons, his fellow-citizens paid tribute to his memory 
when he passed away. He was buried from Mechanics Hall and the colors 
which he saved at so dear a price, and which have since rested in the hall 
of flags at the State House in Boston, were brought from Boston by special 
permission and laid on his coffin. 

It was at the battle of Fredericksburg that the plucky fellow met with 
the horrible mutilation. The 21st regiment was under artillery fire from the 
impregnable position of the rebels on Marye's Hill. The Northern colors 
had fallen again and again. Plunkett sprang to raise the Stars and Stripes 
as they fell with the mortally stricken Color-Sergeant Collins; while Color- 
Corporal Wheeler was loosening the dying grasp of Color-Corporal Barr 
from the staff of the white flag of Massachusetts and Olney soon seized 
the national banner, now wet with the blood of the armless Plunkett. A 
shell had carried away both arms and wounded him in the chest. His 
recovery was a great surprise and joy to his comrades for it was taken for 
granted that his wounds were mortal. 

At a re-enlistment reception given to the 21st Regiment who sur- 
vived so far, Feb. 1, 1864, Plunkett walked in the procession from City 
Hall to Mechanics Hall, besides the colors which had cost him so dearly. 
He attracted much attention with his two empty sleeves. 



312 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Hon. Alfred Roe— Worcester's Most 
Versatile Veteran 

HON. ALFRED S. ROE, soldier, educator, orator and versatile 
genius generally, has given to Worcester the impress of his person- 
ality in many lines of civic activity. His military life has made him 
indispensable at all gatherings of veterans, where his ready story is one of 
the greatest charms of all these reunions. 

For many years he was principal of the Classical High School, and in 
these early years of the school's history the solid foundation of character 
of many of Worcester's most substantial men and women was laid. 

Mr. Roe is now principal of the Evening High School, and through 
that medium is extending to young people who could not grasp advantages 
in their youth the means of reaching greater success in life. 

As an author, a writer for magazines and newspaper editorials, few 
have the faculty of this versatile veteran of timely criticism, advocacy or 
advice, and the kindly sketches of fellow-citizens who have gone to that 
bourne from which no traveler returns have solaced many aching hearts. 

Hon. A. S. Roe is in the prime of life, although nearly the Biblical 
period allotted to man of threescore years and ten, but there are few busi- 
ness men in Worcester a score of years younger than he is, whose mentality 
is so active and his physical powers so sturdy. 

Alfred Roe is one of the unusually strong personalities of the Heart 
of the Commonwealth, and fills a niche in its life and history which cannot 
be duplicated by any other citizen. May he live as long as his venerable 
and reverend father, who died in New York State early in March, this 
year, at the age of 90 years and 6 months. 

Two Famous Worcester Women 

THIS WORCESTER, the City of Prosperity Book, was intended 
mainly for the glorification of men who did deeds and worked won- 
ders, but it will be glorified by, and would not be complete without, 
a brief reference to two famous women — Fannie Bullock Workman and 
Alice Morse Earle. 

Both these women were born in Worcester, and their names have 
brought renown to the city. 

Fannie Bullock Workman is the daughter of the late ex-Governor 
Alexander H. Bullock, and was educated at the Worcester public schools. 
She married in 1881 Dr. William Hunter Workman, of this city, and for 
many years has been known as a noted traveler, explorer, author, lecturer. 
She holds the world's mountaineering record for women. 

Alice Morse Earle was born in 1853. In 1874 she married Henry 
Earle, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Much of her life has been devoted to writing 
magazine articles, and later to the publishing of popular books, mainly on 
colonial life and customs. She died in 191 1. 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester's Part in the Programme for the 

N. M. T. A. Convention, Hotel Bancroft, 

April 20-22, 1914 

HE FOLLOWING PROGRAMME tells briefly what features of 
the Convention the Worcester Branch has arranged for the benefit 
of the delegates, their wives and the Branch Secretaries: 



T 



Entertainment for Delegates 

Monday, April 20, 1 1 .00 a. m. — Leave the Bancroft for visit to Trade 

School for Boys. 
12.30 p. m. — Return to Bancroft. 

2.00 p. m. — Leave Bancroft in autos for visit to 
Crompton & Knowles Loom Works 
and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 

7.00 p. m.- — Dinner for delegates in Bancroft — en- 
tertainment in charge of E. P. Crerie 
and Dr. A. J. Harpin. Rev. Dr 
Willard Scott is after dinner orator. 
Pres. John W. Higgins will preside. 
Tuesday, April 21, 9.00 a. m. — One party will leave the Bancroft for 

South Works, American Steel & Wire 
Co. 
Another party will leave Bancroft for 
shops of Norton Grinding Co., Nor- 
ton Co., Worcester Pressed Steel Co., 
Heald Machine Co. and Bradley 
Car Works. 

1 .00 p. m. — Lunch at Bancroft. 

2.00 p. m. — Convention opens. 

7.00 p. m. — Reception to National Officers — Din- 
ner — Dance. 
Wednesday, April 22, 9.00 a. m. — Convention. 

2.00 p. m. — Convention. 

7.00 p. m. — Convention Banquet. 

Entertainment for the Ladies 

Monday, April 20, 12.00 noon — Ladies will leave The Bancroft for trip 

in autos to Brigham Hill, a fine New 
England Tea House, erected in I 728, 
where lunch will be served. Leave 
Brigham Hill at 2.15 p. m. for a ride 
to the Metropolitan Reservoir at 
Clinton — thence to the home of 
Mary Sawyer, at Sterling, whose 

314 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



lamb followed her to school. Arrive 
at The Bancroft at 5 p. m., in time 
to prepare for Theatre Party at 8 
p. m., to witness "The Sunshine 
Girl," with wives of Worcester 
Executive Board. 

Tuesday, April 21, 10.00 a. m. — Ladies leave from Bancroft in autos for 

trip to Woman's Club, Worcester Art 
Museum, Royal Worcester Corset 
Co.'s shop, where lunch will be served. 
Then auto ride to Spencer and 
around Lake Quinsigamond. Re- 
turn to The Bancroft in time to pre- 
pare for Reception, Dinner, Dance. 
7.00 p. m. — Reception — Dinner — Dance in Ban- 
croft Ballroom. 

Wednesday, April 22, 1 0.00 a. m. — Ladies leave Bancroft in autos to visit 

Girls' and Boys' Trade Schools, 
thence to Tatnuck Country Club for 
lunch at 12.30 p. m., after which 
golf or cards can be indulged in dur- 
ing afternoon. Arrive at Bancroft 
at 5 p. m. in time to prepare for 
dinner at 6.30 p. m., with wives of 
Executive Board members. At 9 p. 
m. adjourn to messinine floor to lis- 
ten to music and addresses at Men's 
Banquet. 

Branch Secretaries 

Monday, April 20, 4.00 p. m. — Auto trip to Metropolitan Reservoir, 

dinner in Sterling Inn, theatre in 
evening. 

Tuesday, April 21, 8.00 a. m. — Secretaries Breakfast in The Bancroft. 

Convention Committees 

In Charge of Entertainment for Lady Visitors 
Mrs. Donald Tulloch 
Mrs. John W. Higgim 
Mrs. E. C. Harrington 
Miss Clara L. Matthews 
Mrs. Gilbert H. Harrington 
Mrs. C. M. Stewart 
Mrs. A. E. Newton 
Mrs. J. Herbert Johnson 
Mrs. W. A. Layman 
Mrs. John D. Hibbard 

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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



In Charge of Entertainment for Delegates 

John W. Higgins, chairman A. W. Beaman 

John W. Harrington Donald Tulloch 

Frank L. Coes George Crompton 

John C. Stewart Reginald Washburn 

J. Herbert Johnson Jerome R. George 

Arthur P. Higgins Frank O. Woodland 

C. H. Norton James N. Heald 

F. S. Morton A. S. Miller, Jr. 

A. C. Marble Samuel T. Hobbs 

Henry H. Wright E. M. Woodward, Jr. 

In Charge of the Reception — Dinner — Dance 
President Higgins, the officers and members of Worcester Branch, 
Executive Board. Also, John W. Harrington, Gifford K. Simonds, Col. 
S. E. Winslow, George Crompton, Reginald Washburn, Arthur P. Higgins, 
Chas. E. Hildreth, Geo. N. Jeppson, Channing Wells, Harry G. Stoddard, 
Frank O. Woodland, Herbert E. Jennison, W. M. Whitney, F E. Wing, 
Chas. F. Marble, C. L. Wright, Hamilton B. Wood, Warren G. Davis, 
W. W. Armour, Donald Tulloch. 

Entertainment for Secretaries 
Donald Tulloch 

Emergency Committee 
John W. Harrington 
A. E. Newton 
Frank L. Coes 

Committee on Automobiles 
John W. Harrington 
Donald Tulloch 

Information Bureau 

Miss Elizabeth M. Tulloch 



316 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Distances from the Heart of 
the Commonwealth 

WORCESTER is distant from: 

Fitchburg 26 miles 

Athol 44 

Boston 44 

Providence 44 

Nashua 4/ 

Springfield - 5 - ) 

Manchester 64 

Hartford 81 

New Haven ' ' 8 

Bridgeport .134 

Portland .149 

Albany . 158 ' 

Schenectady . . l/-> 

New York .192 

Utica 253 

Philadelphia 280 

Montreal 306 

Syracuse JUO 

Baltimore 376 

Rochester ... 387 

Washington 4l8 

Buffalo 454 



Toronto 



556 



Pittsburg 634 

Cleveland 638 



Detroit 



706 



Toledo 756 

777 
Columbus 

Chicago 901 

901 
Cincinnati 

Q?? 
Indianapolis y 

Atlanta, Ga 1014 

Milwaukee I076 



St. Louis 



1186 



Minneapolis ' 34/ 



317 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Illustrations 

Page 

"We Are Seven" 4 

John W. Higgins, President, Worcester Branch, N. M. T. A. . 6 

Bancroft Hotel 8 

Tower, Old Union Depot and New Union Depot 10 

Institute Park Bridge 12 

Sagamore John 18 

Worcester's First City Hall 18 

Tablet on Davis Tower 20 

"The Spirit of 76" 24 

Ginery Twichell of Worcester 26 

Worcester's Old-time Locomotive "Lion" 28 

Boston Passenger House 30 

New Union Depot 32 

New Worcester City Hall 34 

Main Street, Worcester, 50 Years Ago and Now 36 

Worcester Post Office 38 

Worcester County Courthouse 42 

Worcester as a Shipping Centre 46 

Fitchburg Courthouse 50 

Park System 52 

Mount Wachusett 54 

Art Museum School 58 

Woodward & Powell Planer Co. Shop 60 

Bancroft Tower 62 

Worcester Labor Bureau — "Where We Do Our Work" .... 64 

Worcester Labor Bureau — "The People We Work For" .... 66 

The Wire Goods Co. Plant 70 

Reed-Prentice Co. Shops 72 

Whitcomb-Blaisdell Machine Tool Co.'s Plants 76 

Heald Machine Co.'s Works 80 

Hobbs Manufacturing Co.'s Shops 82 

Milton Prince Higgins 84 

Worcester Pressed Steel Co.'s Works 86 

Norton Company's Shops 88 

Curtis & Marble Machine Co.'s Plant 92 

Norton Grinding Co.'s Works 96 

Stockbridge Machine Co.'s Shop 98 

Baldwin Chain & Manufacturing Co.'s Shop 102 

Matthews Manufacturing Co.'s Plant 104 

Harrington & Richardson Arms Co.'s Works 106 

Loring Coes 108 

Coes Wrench Co.'s Works 108 



3i8 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Page 

Parker Wire Goods Co. 's Shop 110 

The Samuel Winslow Skate Mfg. Co. Plant 112 

Graphic Arts Building 114 

Stewart Boiler Works 116 

John J. Adams Shop 118 

L. S. Starrett 120 

The L. S. Starrett Co. Works 1 20 

Warren Steam Pump Co. Shop 122 

Baxter D. Whitney & Son Plant 124 

Baxter D. Whitney 126 

M. S. Wright Co. Shop 130 

Coates Clipper Mfg. Co. Shop 1 32 

Wyman & Gordon Co.'s Works 134 

David H. Fanning 1 36 

Dupaul- Young Optical Co.'s Works 140 

Charles H. Morgan 142 

William A. Richardson 144 

Gilbert N. Harrington 148 

Fitchburg Steam Engine Co.'s Works 152 

Worcester Polytechnic Institute 154 

Lapointe Machine Tool Co.'s Shop 158 

Worcester Boys' Trade School 160 

Worcester Trade School Work 162 

Daniel Simonds 166 

Charles F. Putnam 1 70 

H. O. Putnam 1 70 

Clark University 1 72 

Alonzo Whitcomb 1 76 

George W. Wells 1 78 

American Optical Co.'s Works 182 

Union Twist Drill Co. Plant 184 

Dexter Harrington 188 

Harrington Cutlery Co.'s Shop 190 

Worcester Art Museum 192 

Simonds Manufacturing Co.'s Plant 194 

Universal Boring Machine Co.'s Shop 198 

Athol Machine Co.'s Works 200 

Charles G. Allen Co. Plant 202 

Worcester Woman's Clubhouse 204 

Leavitt Machine Co.'s Shop 208 

Odd Fellows' Home 210 

Mechanics Hall 212 

John D. Hibbard 222 

Exchange Coffee House 224 

South Mere, Elm Park 226 

W. A. Layman 230 



319 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Page 

Herbert H. Rice 232 

Old United States Hotel, Worcester, Mass 240 

M H. Barker 236 

Amos Whitney 244 

Lucian Sharpe 246 

Samuel E. Hildreth 248 

Joseph Flather 250 

Samuel Winslow 252 

E. T. Marble 252 

Watching the Battle of Bunker Hill 260 

George Bancroft 262 

George Bancroft's Birthplace 264 

Artemus Ward 266 

Artemus Ward's Home 268 

Artemus Ward's Kitchen 270 

George Frisbie Hoar 272 

Eli Whitney 274 

Elias Howe 276 

Elias Howe's Birthplace 278 

William Morton 280 

Ether First Proved by Dr. Morton 282 

Dorothea Dix 284 

John B. Gough 286 

Clara Barton 288 

Luther Burbank 290 

Luther Burbanks Birthplace 292 

The State Armory 300 



320 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Contents 



Mayor 



A Dedication and Confession .... 

We Acknowledge Thanks 

The Philosophy of Learning a Trade 

To Metal Trades Men — Greeting 

"Cead Mille Fealthe"— 100,000 Welcomes 

" Fair Worcester" 

"Worcester — City of Prosperity" 

Worcester First Settled 

Worcester's Population Since I 722 

Worcester's City Hall 

From Old Worcester to New Worcester . 
George Merrill Wright — Machinist, Farmer 
Worcester's Municipal Affairs 
Some of the Things Worcester Does . 
Worcester's Financial Standing 
Entertainment Houses and Halls 

Park System 

Worcester Post Office 

Worcester — A City of Hills 

"Up Wi' the Hammer, Mate," 

Worcester — A Manufacturing Centre 

Some Kinds of Machinery and Specialties Made in Worcester 

Thiee quarters of a Century of Machine Tool Operation 

Milled Machine Screws 

Worcester's Valhalla in Mechanics, in Inventions and in Business 

agement 

Alphabet of Worcester Branch, N. M. T. A. 

Officers and Members of Worcester Branch .... 

The Industries of Worcester after 50 Years of City Life 

"Blessed are the Horny Hands of Toil" .... 

Thomas Blanchard — His Versatility in Invention . 

Milton Prince Higgins — Father of the Trade School Movement 

Plunger Elevators 

George Ira Alden — Inventor, Educator 

The Crompton Loom 

Norton Company — Pioneers in Emery Wheel Work in the World 
Norton Grinding Company — Made Grinding an Art 
Worcester's Biggest Industry — Wire 
Worcester — Pioneer in Envelope Making 
The H. & R. Dependable Firearms 

Loring Coes — Inventor 

Charles Hill Morgan — Inventor, Engineer 



M 



Page 

3 

5 

7 

9 

13 

17 

19 

21 

31 

33 

37 

39 

40 

44 

49 

49 

51 

51 

53 

55 

56 

57 

59 

63 

in- 

65 

67 

68 

71 

77 

78 

85 

89 

90 

90 

94 

95 

99 

105 

109 

109 

111 



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Worcester, City of Prosperity 



William T. Merrifield — Carpenter and Promoter of Industries 

Osgood Bradley Car Company 

The Samuel Winslow Skate Manufacturing Company 

American Car Sprinkler 

ng Mills 



Morgan Construction Co. — Pioneers in Roll 
Charles Thurber's Typewriter 

World Labeling Machines 

Pliny Earle — Card Clothing Expert . 

L. S. Starrett — Mechanic, Dairyman, Inventor 

Tech Graduate Made First Auto in America 

Warren Steam Pump Co 

Just Stiffen the Upper Lip 

Warp Compressing Machine 

Rice, Barton & Fales — Paper Machinery Manufacturers 

Baxter D. Whitney — Inventor, Oldest Member of the Worcester 

Branch 

A Thousand Vacuum Cleaners per Day . 
Albert Curtis — Manufacturer, Benefactor 
George H. Coates — Inventor and Designer . 
Henry D. Perky — Inventor, Idealist, Soldier 
Eight Hundred Hides per Day .... 

The Whittall Mills 

David H. Fanning — Corset Manufacturer, 83 Years Young 

Worcester: 1848-1898 

Men Who Helped Make Worcester 

Worcester's Railroads 

The Blackstone Canal . 
Worcester's Trolley System 

Worcester's Banking Business 

Worcester's Schools for Engineers and Mechanics 

Worcester Polytechnic Institute 

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Graduates in Metal Trades Shops 
Worcester Trade School for Boys 
Fitchburg Plan of Co-operative Education 

Let Me Work 

Worcester Trade School for Girls 

Worcester's Higher Institutions of Learning — Clark University 

Jonas Gilman Clark 

Dr. Granville Stanley Hall 



Clark College .... 
Worcester Academy 
The Bancroft School 
Oread Castle .... 
Worcester Domestic Science School 
Worcester — A City of Churches 
Worcester Commercial Organizations 
School of the Worcester Art Museum 



Page 
113 
113 
115 
115 
115 
115 
117 
119 
121 
123 
125 
125 
127 
127 



127 
129 
131 
131 
133 
135 
135 
137 
139 
143 
150 
151 
153 
153 
155 
155 
157 
161 
165 
168 
171 
173 
175 
175 
179 
181 
183 
185 
186 
187 
189 
191 



322 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Massachusetts State Normal School 

Holy Cross College 

Young Men's Christian Association . 
Young Women's Christian Association 
Free Public Library 
Worcester Art Museum 
Worcester Music Festival 
Worcester Woman's Club 
The Playground Movement 
Lake Quinsigamond 

Masonic Order 

Masonic Temple .... 
Worcester Odd Fellows 

Mechanics Hall 

The Glorious Fourth Made Safe 
The American Antiquarian Society 

Worcester Society of Antiquity 

Employers Association of Worcester County 
Worcester Natural History Society 
Worcester Agricultural Society .... 
Worcester County Horticultural Society 
Worcester County Incorporated 200 Years Ago 
The Garden City ... .... 

Worcester's Hostelries 

General Washington's Visit to Exchange Hotel 

The Bancroft Hotel 

The Bancroft Welcome 

National Metal Trades Association 

Melville H. Barker — The National's G. O. M. 

National Machine Tool Builders Association 

National Founders Association 

Worcester Boys Club 

Norton Safety First Association 

How the Big Men Dare and Do 

Amos Whitney 

Lucian Sharpe 

Samuel E. Hildreth 

Joseph Flather 

Samuel Winslow 

Edwin T. Marble .... 

Blake Pump & Condenser Co. 

Draper Company .... 

Whitin Machine Works 

How to Play the Game of Life 

Worcester's Motive Power 

Concord Bridge .... 

The Bigelow Monument 



Page 
193 
195 
196 
197 
201 
203 
203 
205 
206 
207 
209 
209 
211 
213 
214 
215 
217 
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249 
251 
253 
253 
234 
255 
256 
256 
257 
257 
258 



323 



Worcester, City of Prosperity 



Worcester in Its Early Days 



Shrewsbury Minute Men 

President John Adams 

Col. Timothy Bigelow 

George Bancroft 

Artemus Ward 

George Frisbie Hoar 

Eli Whitney 

Elihu Burritt 

Elias Howe 

William Morton 

Ethan Allen 

Dorothea Dix 

John B. Gough 

Clara Barton, Mother of the Red Cross 

Luther Burbank 

Mary Had a Little Lamb 

Andrew H. Greene — Father of Greater New York 

Lucy Stone — Woman's Rights Advocate 

Hon. Stephen Salisbury — Worcester's Wealthiest Citizen 

Edward Augustus Goodnow 

Col. Calvin Foster 

"No Greater Hero Than Eli Thayer'' 

Industrial Welfare Work 

Ex-president Taft, Aunt Delia and Millbury 

A Patriotic Creed 

The State Armory 

The Centennial of the American Flag 
Worcester in the Civil and Spanish Wars 
Geo. H. Ward — Machinist, Soldier 
Nelson A. Miles — A Born Soldier 
Augustus Sprague — Soldier, Citizen 
Gen. Chas. Devens — Soldier and Jurist 

The Vacant Chair 

Work 

Gen. Josiah Pickett 

The Soldiers' Monument on the Common 
Three Young Worcester Martyrs . 

Sergeant Plunkett 

Hon. Alfred S. Roe 

Two Famous Worcester Women 

Worcester's Part in N. M. T. A. Convention Programme 
Distances From the Heart of the Commonwealth . 



324 



H 74 90 











^ Vi 







HECKMAN 1XS 
BINDERY INC. [H] 

# JAN 90 
N. MANCHESTER, 
INDIANA 46962 







